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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 05:20:18 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 05:20:18 -0700 |
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diff --git a/3033-h/3033-h.htm b/3033-h/3033-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7805d49 --- /dev/null +++ b/3033-h/3033-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3925 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" +"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> +<title>The Passing of the Frontier | Project Gutenberg</title> + +<style type="text/css"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> +</head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 3033 ***</div> + + <h1> + THE PASSING OF THE FRONTIER + </h1> + <h2> + A CHRONICLE OF THE OLD WEST + </h2> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h2> + By Emerson Hough + </h2> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h5> + New Haven: Yale University Press <br /><br /> Toronto: Glasgow, Brook & + Co. <br /><br /> London: Humphrey Milford <br /><br /> Oxford University Press + <br /><br /> 1918 + </h5> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h2> + Contents + </h2> + <h4> + <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> THE PASSING OF THE FRONTIER </a> + </h4> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <table summary="" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto"> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0001"> Chapter I. </a> + </td> + <td> + The Frontier In History + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0002"> Chapter II. </a> + </td> + <td> + The Range + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0003"> Chapter III. </a> + </td> + <td> + The Cattle Trails + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0004"> Chapter IV. </a> + </td> + <td> + The Cowboy + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0005"> Chapter V. </a> + </td> + <td> + The Mines + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0006"> Chapter VI. </a> + </td> + <td> + The Pathways Of The West + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0007"> Chapter VII. </a> + </td> + <td> + The Indian Wars + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0008"> Chapter VIII. </a> + </td> + <td> + The Cattle Kings + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0009"> Chapter IX. </a> + </td> + <td> + The Homesteader + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + </td> + </tr> + </table> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h1> + THE PASSING OF THE FRONTIER + </h1> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter I. The Frontier In History + </h2> + <p> + The frontier! There is no word in the English language more stirring, more + intimate, or more beloved. It has in it all the elan of the old French + phrase, _En avant!_ It carries all of the old Saxon command, Forward!! It + means all that America ever meant. It means the old hope of a real + personal liberty, and yet a real human advance in character and + achievement. To a genuine American it is the dearest word in all the + world. + </p> + <p> + What is, or was, the frontier? Where was it? Under what stars did it lie? + Because, as the vague Iliads of ancient heroes or the nebulous records of + the savage gentlemen of the Middle Ages make small specific impingement on + our consciousness today, so also even now begin the tales of our own old + frontier to assume a haziness, an unreality, which makes them seem less + history than folklore. Now the truth is that the American frontier of + history has many a local habitation and many a name. And this is why it + lies somewhat indefinite under the blue haze of the years, all the more + alluring for its lack of definition, like some old mountain range, the + softer and more beautiful for its own shadows. + </p> + <p> + The fascination of the frontier is and has ever been an undying thing. + Adventure is the meat of the strong men who have built the world for those + more timid. Adventure and the frontier are one and inseparable. They + suggest strength, courage, hardihood—qualities beloved in men since + the world began—qualities which are the very soul of the United + States, itself an experiment, an adventure, a risk accepted. Take away all + our history of political regimes, the story of the rise and fall of this + or that partisan aggregation in our government; take away our somewhat + inglorious military past; but leave us forever the tradition of the + American frontier! There lies our comfort and our pride. There we never + have failed. There, indeed, we always realized our ambitions. There, + indeed, we were efficient, before that hateful phrase was known. There we + were a melting-pot for character, before we came to know that odious + appellation which classifies us as the melting-pot of the nations. + </p> + <p> + The frontier was the place and the time of the strong man, of the + self-sufficient but restless individual. It was the home of the rebel, the + protestant, the unreconciled, the intolerant, the ardent—and the + resolute. It was not the conservative and tender man who made our history; + it was the man sometimes illiterate, oftentimes uncultured, the man of + coarse garb and rude weapons. But the frontiersmen were the true dreamers + of the nation. They really were the possessors of a national vision. Not + statesmen but riflemen and riders made America. The noblest conclusions of + American history still rest upon premises which they laid. + </p> + <p> + But, in its broadest significance, the frontier knows no country. It lies + also in other lands and in other times than our own. When and what was the + Great Frontier? We need go back only to the time of Drake and the + sea-dogs, the Elizabethan Age, when all North America was a frontier, + almost wholly unknown, compellingly alluring to all bold men. That was the + day of new stirrings in the human heart. Some strange impulse seemed to + act upon the soul of the braver and bolder Europeans; and they moved + westward, nor could have helped that had they tried. They lived largely + and blithely, and died handsomely, those old Elizabethan adventurers, and + they lie today in thousands of unrecorded graves upon two continents, each + having found out that any place is good enough for a man to die upon, + provided that he be a man. + </p> + <p> + The American frontier was Elizabethan in its quality—childlike, + simple, and savage. It has not entirely passed; for both Elizabethan folk + and Elizabethan customs are yet to be found in the United States. While + the half-savage civilization of the farther West was roaring on its way + across the continent—while the day of the keelboatman and the + plainsman, of the Indian-fighter and the miner, even the day of the + cowboy, was dawning and setting—there still was a frontier left far + behind in the East, near the top of the mountain range which made the + first great barrier across our pathway to the West. That frontier, the + frontier of Boone and Kenton, of Robertson and Sevier, still exists and + may be seen in the Cumberland—the only remaining part of America + which is all American. There we may find trace of the Elizabethan Age—idioms + lost from English literature and American speech long ago. There we may + see the American home life as it went on more than a hundred years ago. We + may see hanging on the wall the long muzzle-loading rifle of an earlier + day. We may see the spinning-wheel and the loom. The women still make in + part the clothing for their families, and the men still make their own + household furniture, their own farming implements, their own boots. + </p> + <p> + This overhanging frontier of America is a true survival of the days of + Drake as well as of the days of Boone. The people are at once godly and + savage. They breed freely; they love their homes; they are ever ready for + adventure; they are frugal, abstemious, but violent and strong. They carry + on still the half-religious blood feuds of the old Scotch Highlands or the + North of Ireland, whence they came. They reverence good women. They care + little for material accumulations. They believe in personal ease and + personal independence. With them life goes on not in the slow monotony of + reiterated performance, but in ragged profile, with large exertions + followed by large repose. Now that has been the fashion of the frontier in + every age and every land of all the world. And so, by studying these + people, we may even yet arrive at a just and comprehensive notion of what + we might call the "feel" of the old frontier. + </p> + <p> + There exists, too, yet another Saxon frontier in a far-off portion of the + world. In that strange country, Australia, tremendous unknown regions + still remain, and the wild pastoral life of such regions bids fair to + exist yet for many years. A cattle king of Queensland held at one time + sixty thousand square miles of land. It is said that the average size of + pastoral holdings in the northern territory of Australia is two hundred + and seventy-five thousand acres. Does this not recall the old times of + free range in the American West? + </p> + <p> + This strange antipodal civilization also retains a curious flavor of + Elizabethan ideas. It does not plan for inordinate fortunes, the continual + amassing of money, but it does deliberately plan for the use by the + individual of his individual life. Australian business hours are shorter + than American. Routine is less general. The individual takes upon himself + a smaller load of effort. He is restive under monotony. He sets aside a + great part of his life for sport. He lives in a large and young day of the + world. Here we may see a remote picture of our own American West—better, + as it seems to me, than that reflected in the rapid and wholly + commercialized development of Western Canada, which is not flavored by any + age but this. + </p> + <p> + But much of the frontier of Australia is occupied by men of means who had + behind them government aid and a semi-paternal encouragement in their + adventures. The same is true in part of the government-fostered settlement + of Western Canada. It was not so with the American West. Here was not the + place of the rich man but of the poor man, and he had no one to aid him or + encourage him. Perhaps no man ever understood the American West who did + not himself go there and make his living in that country, as did the men + who found it and held it first. Each life on our old frontier was a + personal adventure. The individual had no government behind him and he + lacked even the protection of any law. + </p> + <p> + Our frontier crawled west from the first seaport settlements, afoot, on + horseback, in barges, or with slow wagon-trains. It crawled across the + Alleghanies, down the great river valleys and up them yet again; and at + last, in days of new transportation, it leaped across divides, from one + river valley to another. Its history, at first so halting, came to be very + swift—so swift that it worked great elisions in its own story. + </p> + <p> + In our own day, however, the Old West generally means the old cow country + of the West—the high plains and the lower foothills running from the + Rio Grande to the northern boundary. The still more ancient cattle-range + of the lower Pacific Slope will never come into acceptance as the Old + West. Always, when we use these words, we think of buffalo plains and of + Indians, and of their passing before the footmen and riders who carried + the phantom flag of Drake and the Virgin Queen from the Appalachians to + the Rockies—before the men who eventually made good that glorious + and vaunting vision of the Virginia cavaliers, whose party turned back + from the Rockfish Gap after laying claim in the name of King George on all + the country lying west of them, as far as the South Sea! + </p> + <p> + The American cow country may with very good logic arrogate to itself the + title of the real and typical frontier of all the world. We call the + spirit of the frontier Elizabethan, and so it was; but even as the + Elizabethan Age was marked by its contact with the Spanish civilization in + Europe, on the high seas, and in both the Americas, so the last frontier + of the American West also was affected, and largely, deeply, by Spanish + influence and Spanish customs. The very phraseology of range work bears + proof of this. Scores of Spanish words are written indelibly in the + language of the Plains. The frontier of the cow-range never was Saxon + alone. + </p> + <p> + It is a curious fact also, seldom if ever noted, that this Old West of the + Plains was very largely Southern and not Northern on its Saxon side. No + States so much as Kentucky and Tennessee and, later, Missouri—daughters + of Old Virginia in her glory—contributed to the forces of the + frontiersmen. Texas, farther to the south, put her stamp indelibly upon + the entire cattle industry of the West. Visionary, impractical, restless, + adventurous, these later Elizabethan heroes—bowing to no yoke, + insisting on their own rights and scorning often the laws of others, yet + careful to retain the best and most advantageous customs of any conquered + country—naturally came from those nearest Elizabethan countries + which lay abandoned behind them. + </p> + <p> + If the atmosphere of the Elizabethan Age still may be found in the + forgotten Cumberlands, let us lay claim to kinship with yonder roystering + heroes of a gallant day; for this was ever the atmosphere of our own + frontier. To feel again the following breezes of the Golden Hind, or see + again, floating high in the cloudless skies, the sails of the Great + Armada, was the privilege of Americans for a double decade within the + memory of men yet living, in that country, so unfailingly beloved, which + we call the Old West of America. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter II. The Range + </h2> + <p> + When, in 1803, those two immortal youths, Meriwether Lewis and William + Clark, were about to go forth on their great journey across the continent, + they were admonished by Thomas Jefferson that they would in all likelihood + encounter in their travels, living and stalking about, the mammoth or the + mastodon, whose bones had been found in the great salt-licks of Kentucky. + We smile now at such a supposition; yet it was not unreasonable then. No + man knew that tremendous country that lay beyond the mouth of the + Missouri. + </p> + <p> + The explorers crossed one portion of a vast land which was like to nothing + they had ever seen—the region later to become the great cattle-range + of America. It reached, although they could know nothing of that, from the + Spanish possessions on the south across a thousand miles of short grass + lands to the present Canadian boundary-line which certain obdurate + American souls still say ought to have been at 54 degrees 40 minutes, and + not where it is! From the Rio Grande to "Fifty-four forty," indeed, would + have made nice measurements for the Saxon cattle-range. + </p> + <p> + Little, however, was the value of this land understood by the explorers; + and, for more than half a century afterwards, it commonly was supposed to + be useless for the occupation of white men and suitable only as a + hunting-ground for savage tribes. Most of us can remember the school maps + of our own youth, showing a vast region marked, vaguely, "The Great + American Desert," which was considered hopeless for any human industry, + but much of which has since proved as rich as any land anywhere on the + globe. + </p> + <p> + Perhaps it was the treeless nature of the vast Plains which carried the + first idea of their infertility. When the first settlers of Illinois and + Indiana came up from south of the Ohio River they had their choice of + timber and prairie lands. Thinking the prairies worthless—since land + which could not raise a tree certainly could not raise crops—these + first occupants of the Middle West spent a generation or more, axe in + hand, along the heavily timbered river-bottoms. The prairies were long in + settling. No one then could have predicted that farm lands in that region + would be worth three hundred dollars an acre or better, and that these + prairies of the Mississippi Valley would, in a few generations, be studded + with great towns and would form a part of the granary of the world. + </p> + <p> + But, if our early explorers, passing beyond the valley of the Missouri, + found valueless the region of the Plains and the foothills, not so the + wild creatures or the savage men who had lived there longer than science + records. The buffalo then ranged from the Rio Grande to the Athabaska, + from the Missouri to the Rockies, and beyond. No one seems to have + concluded in those days that there was after all slight difference between + the buffalo and the domestic ox. The native cattle, however, in untold + thousands and millions, had even then proved beyond peradventure the + sustaining and strengthening nature of the grasses of the Plains. + </p> + <p> + Now, each creature, even of human species, must adjust itself to its + environment. Having done so, commonly it is disposed to love that + environment. The Eskimo and the Zulu each thinks that he has the best land + in the world. So with the American Indian, who, supported by the vast + herds of buffalo, ranged all over that tremendous country which was later + to be given over to the white man with his domestic cattle. No freer life + ever was lived by any savages than by the Horse Indians of the Plains in + the buffalo days; and never has the world known a physically higher type + of savage. + </p> + <p> + On the buffalo-range—that is to say, on the cattle-range which was + to be—Lewis and Clark met several bands of the Sioux—the + Mandans and the Assiniboines, the Blackfeet, the Shoshones. Farther south + were the Pawnees, the Kaws, the Otoes, the Osages, most of whom depended + in part upon the buffalo for their living, though the Otoes, the Pawnees, + the Mandans, and certain others now and then raised a little corn or a few + squashes to help out their bill of fare. Still farther south dwelt the + Kiowas, the Comanches, and others. The Arapahoes, the Cheyennes, the + Crows, and the Utes, all hunters, were soon to come into the ken of the + white man. Of such of these tribes as they met, the youthful captains made + accounting, gravely and with extraordinary accuracy, but without + discovering in this region much future for Americans. They were explorers + and not industrial investigators. + </p> + <p> + It was nearly half a century after the journey of Lewis and Clark that the + Forty-Niners were crossing the Plains, whither, meanwhile, the Mormons had + trekked in search of a country where they might live as they liked. Still + the wealth of the Plains remained untouched. California was in the eyes of + the world. The great cow-range was overleaped. But, in the early fifties, + when the placer fields of California began to be less numerous and less + rich, the half-savage population of the mines roared on northward, even + across our northern line. Soon it was to roll back. Next it worked east + and southeast and northeast over the great dry plains of Washington and + Oregon, so that, as readily may be seen, the cow-range proper was not + settled as most of the West was, by a directly westbound thrust of an + eastern population; but, on the contrary, it was approached from several + different angles—from the north, from the east, from the west and + northwest, and finally from the south. + </p> + <p> + The early, turbulent population of miners and adventurers was crude, + lawless, and aggressive. It cared nothing whatever for the Indian tribes. + War, instant and merciless, where it meant murder for the most part, was + set on foot as soon as white touched red in that far western region. + </p> + <p> + All these new white men who had crowded into the unknown country of the + Plains, the Rockies, the Sierras, and the Cascades, had to be fed. They + could not employ and remain content with the means by which the red man + there had always fed himself. Hence a new industry sprang up in the United + States, which of itself made certain history in that land. The business of + freighting supplies to the West, whether by bull-train or by pack-train, + was an industry sui generic, very highly specialized, and pursued by men + of great business ability as well as by men of great hardihood and daring. + </p> + <p> + Each of these freight trains which went West carried hanging on its flank + more and more of the white men. As the trains returned, more and more was + learned in the States of the new country which lay between the Missouri + and the Rockies, which ran no man knew how far north, and no man could + guess how far south. Now appears in history Fort Benton, on the Missouri, + the great northern supply post—just as at an earlier date there had + appeared Fort Hall, one of the old fur-trading posts beyond the Rockies, + Bent's Fort on the Arkansas, and many other outposts of the new Saxon + civilization in the West. + </p> + <p> + Later came the pony express and the stage coach which made history and + romance for a generation. Feverishly, boisterously, a strong, rugged, + womanless population crowded westward and formed the wavering, now + advancing, now receding line of the great frontier of American story. + </p> + <p> + But for long there was no sign of permanent settlement on the Plains, and + no one thought of this region as the frontier. The men there who were + prospecting and exploiting were classified as no more than adventurers. No + one seems to have taken a lesson from the Indian and the buffalo. The + reports of Fremont long since had called attention to the nourishing + quality of those grasses of the high country, but the day of the cowboy + had not yet dawned. There is a somewhat feeble story which runs to the + effect that in 1866 one of the great wagon-trains, caught by the early + snows of winter, was obliged to abandon its oxen on the range. It was + supposed that, of course, the oxen must perish during the winter. But next + spring the owners were surprised to find that the oxen, so far from + perishing, had flourished very much—indeed, were fat and in good + condition. So runs the story which is often repeated. It may be true, but + to accredit to this incident the beginnings of the cattle industry in the + Indian country would surely be going too far. The truth is that the cow + industry was not a Saxon discovery. It was a Latin enterprise, flourishing + in Mexico long before the first of these miners and adventurers came on + the range. + </p> + <p> + Something was known of the Spanish lands to the south through the + explorations of Pike, but more through the commerce of the prairies—the + old wagon trade from the Missouri River to the Spanish cities of Sante Fe + and Chihuahua. Now the cow business, south of the Rio Grande, was already + well differentiated and developed at the time the first adventurers from + the United States went into Texas and began to crowd their Latin neighbors + for more room. There it was that our Saxon frontiersmen first discovered + the cattle industry. But these southern and northern riflemen—ruthless + and savage, yet strangely statesmanlike—though they might betimes + drive away the owners of the herds, troubled little about the herds + themselves. There was a certain fascination to these rude strangers in the + slow and easeful civilization of Old Spain which they encountered in the + land below them. Little by little, and then largely and yet more largely, + the warriors of San Jacinto reached out and began to claim lands for + themselves—leagues and uncounted leagues of land, which had, + however, no market value. Well within the memory of the present generation + large tracts of good land were bought in Texas for six cents an acre; some + was bought for half that price in a time not much earlier. Today much of + that land is producing wealth; but land then was worthless—and so + were cows. + </p> + <p> + This civilization of the Southwest, of the new Republic of Texas, may be + regarded as the first enduring American result of contact with the Spanish + industry. The men who won Texas came mostly from Kentucky and Tennessee or + southern Ohio, and the first colonizer of Texas was a Virginian, Stephen + Fuller Austin. They came along the old Natchez Trace from Nashville to the + Mississippi River—that highway which has so much history of its own. + Down this old winding trail into the greatest valley of all the world, and + beyond that valley out into the Spanish country, moved steadily the + adventurers whose fathers had but recently crossed the Appalachians. One + of the strongest thrusts of the American civilization thus entered the + cattle-range at its lower end, between the Rio Grande and the Red River. + </p> + <p> + In all the several activities, mining, freighting, scouting, soldiering, + riding pony express, or even sheer adventuring for what might come, there + was ever a trading back and forth between home-staying men and adventuring + men. Thus there was an interchange of knowledge and of customs between + East and West, between our old country and our new. There was an + interchange, too, at the south, where our Saxon civilization came in touch + with that of Mexico. + </p> + <p> + We have now to note some fundamental facts and principles of the cattle + industry which our American cattlemen took over ready-made from the hands + of Mexico. + </p> + <p> + The Mexicans in Texas had an abundance of small, hardy horses of African + and Spanish breed, which Spain had brought into the New World—the + same horses that the Moors had brought into Spain—a breed naturally + hardy and able to subsist upon dry food. Without such horses there could + have been no cattle industry. These horses, running wild in herds, had + crossed to the upper Plains. La Verendrye, and later Lewis and Clark, had + found the Indians using horses in the north. The Indians, as we have seen, + had learned to manage the horse. Formerly they had used dogs to drag the + travois, but now they used the "elk-dog," as they first called the horse. + </p> + <p> + In the original cow country, that is, in Mexico and Texas, countless herds + of cattle were held in a loose sort of ownership over wide and unknown + plains. Like all wild animals in that warm country, they bred in + extraordinary numbers. The southern range, indeed, has always been called + the breeding range. The cattle had little value. He who wanted beef killed + beef. He who wanted leather killed cattle for their hides. But beyond + these scant and infrequent uses cattle had no definite value. + </p> + <p> + The Mexican, however, knew how to handle cows. He could ride a horse, and + he could rope cattle and brand them. Most of the cattle of a wide range + would go to certain water-holes more or less regularly, where they might + be roughly collected or estimated. This coming of the cattle to the + watering-places made it unnecessary for owners of cattle to acquire ranch + land. It was enough to secure the water-front where the cows must go to + drink. That gave the owner all the title he needed. His right to the + increase he could prove by another phenomenon of nature, just as + inevitable and invariable as that of thirst. The maternal instinct of a + cow and the dependence of the calf upon its mother gave the old rancher of + immemorial times sufficient proof of ownership in the increase of his + herd. The calf would run with its own mother and with no other cow through + its first season. So that if an old Mexican _ranchero_ saw a certain number + of cows at his watering-places, and with them calves, he knew that all + before him were his property—or, at least, he claimed them as such + and used them. + </p> + <p> + Still, this was loose-footed property. It might stray away after all, or + it might be driven away. Hence, in some forgotten time, our shrewd + Spaniard invented a system of proof of ownership which has always lain at + the very bottom of the organized cow industry; he invented the method of + branding. This meant his sign, his name, his trade-mark, his proof of + ownership. The animal could not shake it off. It would not burn off in the + sun or wash off in the rain. It went with the animal and could not be + eradicated from the animal's hide. Wherever the bearer was seen, the brand + upon its hide provided certain identification of the owner. + </p> + <p> + Now, all these basic ideas of the cow industry were old on the lower range + in Texas when our white men first drifted thither. The cattle industry, + although in its infancy, and although supposed to have no great future, + was developed long before Texas became a republic. It never, indeed, + changed very much from that time until the end of its own career. + </p> + <p> + One great principle was accepted religiously even in those early and crude + days. A man's cow was _his_ cow. A man's brand was HIS brand. There must be + no interference with his ownership. Hence certain other phases of the + industry followed inevitably. These cattle, these calves, each branded by + the iron of the owner, in spite of all precautions, began to mingle as + settlers became more numerous; hence came the idea of the round-up. The + country was warm and lazy. If a hundred or a thousand cows were not + collected, very well. If a calf were separated from its mother, very well. + The old ranchers never quarreled among themselves. They never would have + made in the South anything like a cattle association; it was left for the + Yankees to do that at a time when cows had come to have far greater + values. There were few arguments in the first rodeos of the lower range. + One rancher would vie with his neighbor in generosity in the matter of + unbranded calves. Haggling would have been held contemptible. On the lower + range in the old times no one cared much about a cow. Why should one do + so? There was no market for cows—no one who wished to buy them. If + one tendered a Mexican cinquo pesos for a yearling or a two-year-old, the + owner might perhaps offer the animal as a gift, or he might smile and say + "_Con mucho gusto_" as he was handed a few pieces of silver. There were + plenty of cows everywhere in the world! + </p> + <p> + Let us, therefore, give the old Spaniard full credit alike in picturesque + romance and in the organized industry of the cow. The westbound thrust + which came upon the upper part of the range in the days of more shrewd and + exacting business methods was simply the best-known and most published + phase of frontier life in the cow country; hence we have usually accepted + it as typical. It would not be accurate to say that the cattle industry + was basically much influenced or governed by northern or eastern men. In + practically all of its great phenomena the frontier of the old cow-range + was southern by birth and growth. + </p> + <p> + There lay, then, so long unused, that vast and splendid land so soon to + write romantic history of its own, so soon to come into the admiration or + the wonder of a great portion of the earth—a land of fascinating + interest to the youth of every country, and a region whose story holds a + charm for young and old alike even today. It was a region royal in its + dimensions. Far on the west it was hedged by the gray-sided and + white-topped mountains, the Rockies. Where the buffalo once lived, the + cattle were to live, high up in the foothills of this great mountain range + which ran from the Rio Grande to Canada. On the east, where lay the + Prairies rather than the Plains, it was a country waving with high native + grasses, with many brilliant flowers hiding among them, the sweet-william, + the wild rose, and often great masses of the yellow sunflower. + </p> + <p> + From the Rio Grande to the Athabaska, for the greater part, the frontier + sky was blue and cloudless during most of the year. The rainfall was not + great. The atmosphere was dry. It was a cheerful country, one of optimism + and not of gloom. In the extreme south, along the Rio Grande, the climate + was moister, warmer, more enervating; but on the high steppes of the + middle range in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, western Nebraska, there lay + the finest out-of-doors country, man's country the finest of the earth. + </p> + <p> + But for the time, busy with more accustomed things, mining and freighting + and fighting and hunting and trading and trapping, we Americans who had + arrived upon the range cared little for cows. The upper thrust of the + great herds from the south into the north had not begun. It was after the + Civil War that the first great drives of cattle from the south toward the + north began, and after men had learned in the State of Texas that cattle + moved from the Rio Grande to the upper portions of the State and fed on + the mesquite grass would attain greater stature than in the hot coast + country. Then swiftly, somewhat luridly, there leaped into our + comprehension and our interest that strange country long loosely held + under our flag, the region of the Plains, the region which we now call the + Old West. + </p> + <p> + In great bands, in long lines, slowly, towheaded, sore-footed, the vast + gatherings of the prolific lower range moved north, each cow with its + title indelibly marked upon its hide. These cattle were now going to take + the place of those on which the Indians had depended for their living + these many years. A new day in American history had dawned. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter III. The Cattle Trails + </h2> + <p> + The customary method of studying history by means of a series of events + and dates is not the method which we have chosen to employ in this study + of the Old West. Speaking generally, our minds are unable to assimilate a + condensed mass of events and dates; and that is precisely what would be + required of us if we should attempt here to follow the ways of + conventional history. Dates are at best no more than milestones on the + pathway of time; and in the present instance it is not the milestones but + the road itself with which we are concerned. Where does the road begin? + Why comes it hither? Whither does it lead? These are the real questions. + </p> + <p> + Under all the exuberance of the life of the range there lay a steady + business of tremendous size and enormous values. The "uproarious iniquity" + of the West, its picturesqueness, its vividness—these were but froth + on the stream. The stream itself was a steady and somber flood. Beyond + this picturesqueness of environment very few have cared to go, and + therefore sometimes have had little realization of the vastness of the + cowboy's kingdom, the "magnitude of the interests in his care, or the + fortitude, resolution, and instant readiness essential to his daily life." + The American cowboy is the most modern representative of a human industry + that is second to very few in antiquity. + </p> + <p> + Julius Caesar struck the note of real history: _Quorum pars magna fui_—"Of + which I was a great part." If we are to seek the actual truth, we ought + most to value contemporary records, representations made by men who were + themselves a part of the scenes which they describe. In that way we shall + arrive not merely upon lurid events, not alone upon the stereotyped + characters of the "Wild West," but upon causes which are much more + interesting and immensely more valuable than any merely titillating + stories from the weirdly illustrated Apocrypha of the West. We must go + below such things if we would gain a just and lasting estimate of the + times. We ought to look on the old range neither as a playground of idle + men nor as a scene of hysterical and contorted human activities. We ought + to look upon it from the point of view of its uses to mankind. The + explorers found it a wilderness, the home of the red man and the buffalo. + What were the underlying causes of its settlement and development? + </p> + <p> + There is in history no agency so wondrous in events, no working + instrumentality so great as transportation. The great seeking of all human + life is to find its level. Perhaps the first men traveled by hollowed logs + down stream. Then possibly the idea of a sail was conceived. Early in the + story of the United States men made commercial journeys from the head of + the Ohio to the mouth of the Mississippi by flatboats, and came back by + keelboats. The pole, the cordelle, the paddle, and the sail, in turn + helped them to navigate the great streams which led out into the West. And + presently there was to come that tremendous upheaval wrought by the advent + of the iron trails which, scorning alike waterways and mountain ranges, + flung themselves almost directly westward across the continent. + </p> + <p> + The iron trails, crossing the northern range soon after the Civil War, + brought a market to the cattle country. Inevitably the men of the lower + range would seek to reach the railroads with what they had to sell—their + greatest natural product, cattle on the hoof. This was the primary cause + of the great northbound drives already mentioned, the greatest pastoral + phenomena in the story of the world. + </p> + <p> + The southern herds at that time had no market at their doors. They had to + go to the market, and they had to go on foot. That meant that they must be + driven northward by cattle handlers who had passed their days in the wild + life of the lower range. These cowmen of course took their character and + their customs northward with them, and so they were discovered by those + enthusiastic observers, newly arrived by rail, whom the cowmen were wont + to call "pilgrims." + </p> + <p> + Now the trail of the great cattle drives—the Long Trail-was a thing + of tremendous importance of itself and it is still full of interest. As it + may not easily be possible for the author to better a description of it + that was written some twenty years ago, that description is here again set + down. * + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + * "The Story of the Cowboy," by E. Hough. Appleton. 1897. +Reprinted by permission. +</pre> + <p> + The braiding of a hundred minor pathways, the Long Trail lay like a vast + rope connecting the cattle country of the South with that of the North. + Lying loose or coiling, it ran for more than two thousand miles along the + eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains, sometimes close in at their feet, + again hundreds of miles away across the hard tablelands or the + well-flowered prairies. It traversed in a fair line the vast land of + Texas, curled over the Indian Nations, over Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska, + Wyoming, and Montana, and bent in wide overlapping circles as far west as + Utah and Nevada; as far east as Missouri, Iowa, even Illinois; and as far + north as the British possessions. Even today you may trace plainly its + former course, from its faint beginnings in the lazy land of Mexico, the + Ararat of the cattle-range. It is distinct across Texas, and multifold + still in the Indian lands. Its many intermingling paths still scar the + iron surface of the Neutral Strip, and the plows have not buried all the + old furrows in the plains of Kansas. Parts of the path still remain + visible in the mountain lands of the far North. You may see the ribbons + banding the hillsides today along the valley of the Stillwater, and along + the Yellowstone and toward the source of the Missouri. The hoof marks are + beyond the Musselshell, over the Bad Lands and the coulees and the flat + prairies; and far up into the land of the long cold you may see, even + today if you like, the shadow of that unparalleled pathway, the Long Trail + of the cattle-range. History has no other like it. + </p> + <p> + The Long Trail was surveyed and constructed in a century and a day. Over + the Red River of the South, a stream even today perhaps known but vaguely + in the minds of many inhabitants of the country, there appeared, almost + without warning, vast processions of strange horned kine—processions + of enormous wealth, owned by kings who paid no tribute, and guarded by men + who never knew a master. Whither these were bound, what had conjured them + forth, whence they came, were questions in the minds of the majority of + the population of the North and East to whom the phenomenon appeared as + the product of a day. The answer to these questions lay deep in the laws + of civilization, and extended far back into that civilization's history. + The Long Trail was finished in a day. It was begun more than a century + before that day, and came forward along the very appointed ways of + time.... Thus, far down in the vague Southwest, at some distant time, in + some distant portion of old, mysterious Mexico, there fell into line the + hoof prints which made the first faint beginnings of the Long Trail, + merely the path of a half nomadic movement along the line of the least + resistance. + </p> + <p> + The Long Trail began to deepen and extend. It received then, as it did + later, a baptism of human blood such as no other pathway of the continent + has known. The nomadic and the warlike days passed, and there ensued a + more quiet and pastoral time. It was the beginning of a feudalism of the + range, a barony rude enough, but a glorious one, albeit it began, like all + feudalism, in large-handed theft and generous murdering. The flocks of + these strong men, carelessly interlapping, increased and multiplied + amazingly. They were hardly looked upon as wealth. The people could not + eat a tithe of the beef; they could not use a hundredth of the leather. + Over hundreds and hundreds of miles of ownerless grass lands, by the rapid + waters of the mountains, by the slow streams of the plains or the long and + dark lagoons of the low coast country, the herds of tens grew into droves + of hundreds and thousands and hundreds of thousands. This was really the + dawning of the American cattle industry. + </p> + <p> + Chips and flakes of the great Southwestern herd began to be seen in the + Northern States. As early as 1857 Texas cattle were driven to Illinois. In + 1861 Louisiana was, without success, tried as an outlet. In 1867 a + venturous drover took a herd across the Indian Nations, bound for + California, and only abandoned the project because the Plains Indians were + then very bad in the country to the north. In 1869 several herds were + driven from Texas to Nevada. These were side trails of the main cattle + road. It seemed clear that a great population in the North needed the + cheap beef of Texas, and the main question appeared to be one of + transportation. No proper means for this offered. The Civil War stopped + almost all plans to market the range cattle, and the close of that war + found the vast grazing lands of Texas covered fairly with millions of + cattle which had no actual or determinate value. They were sorted and + branded and herded after a fashion, but neither they nor their increase + could be converted into anything but more cattle. The cry for a market + became imperative. + </p> + <p> + Meantime the Anglo-Saxon civilization was rolling swiftly toward the upper + West. The Indians were being driven from the Plains. A solid army was + pressing behind the vanguard of soldier, scout, and plainsman. The + railroads were pushing out into a new and untracked empire. They carried + the market with them. The market halted, much nearer, though still some + hundred of miles to the north of the great herd. The Long Trail tapped no + more at the door of Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, but leaped north again + definitely, this time springing across the Red River and up to the + railroads, along sharp and well-defined channels deepened in the year of + 1866 alone by the hoofs of more than a quarter of a million cattle. + </p> + <p> + In 1871, only five years later, over six hundred thousand cattle crossed + the Red River for the Northern markets. Abilene, Newton, Wichita, + Ellsworth, Great Bend, Dodge, flared out into a swift and sometime evil + blossoming. Thus the men of the North first came to hear of the Long Trail + and the men who made it, although really it had begun long ago and had + been foreordained to grow. + </p> + <p> + By this time, 1867 and 1868, the northern portions of the region + immediately to the east of the Rocky Mountains had been sufficiently + cleared of their wild inhabitants to admit a gradual though precarious + settlement. It had been learned yet again that the buffalo grass and the + sweet waters of the far North would fatten a range broadhorn to a stature + far beyond any it could attain on the southern range. The Long Trail + pushed rapidly even farther to the north where there still remained "free + grass" and a new market. The territorial ranges needed many thousands of + cattle for their stocking, and this demand took a large part of the Texas + drive which came to Abilene, Great Bend, and Fort Dodge. Moreover, the + Government was now feeding thousands of its new red wards, and these + Indians needed thousands of beeves for rations, which were driven from the + southern range to the upper army posts and reservations. Between this + Government demand and that of the territorial stock ranges there was + occupation for the men who made the saddle their home. + </p> + <p> + The Long Trail, which had previously found the black corn lands of + Illinois and Missouri, now crowded to the West, until it had reached Utah + and Nevada, and penetrated every open park and mesa and valley of + Colorado, and found all the high plains of Wyoming. Cheyenne and Laramie + became common words now, and drovers spoke as wisely of the dangers of the + Platte as a year before they had mentioned those of the Red River or the + Arkansas. Nor did the Trail pause in its irresistible push to the north + until it had found the last of the five great transcontinental lines, far + in the British provinces. Here in spite of a long season of ice and snow + the uttermost edges of the great herd might survive, in a certain + percentage at least, each year in an almost unassisted struggle for + existence, under conditions different enough, it would seem, from those + obtaining at the opposite extreme of the wild roadway over which they + came. + </p> + <p> + The Long Trail of the cattle-range was done! By magic the cattle industry + had spread over the entire West. Today many men think of that industry as + belonging only to the Southwest, and many would consider that it was + transferred to the North. Really it was not transferred but extended, and + the trail of the old drive marks the line of that extension. + </p> + <p> + Today the Long Trail is replaced by other trails, product of the swift + development of the West, and it remains as the connection, now for the + most part historical only, between two phases of an industry which, in + spite of differences of climate and condition, retain a similarity in all + essential features. When the last steer of the first herd was driven into + the corral at the Ultima Thule of the range, it was the pony of the + American cowboy which squatted and wheeled under the spur and burst down + the straggling street of the little frontier town. Before that time, and + since that time, it was and has been the same pony and the same man who + have traveled the range, guarding and guiding the wild herds, from the + romantic to the commonplace days of the West. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter IV. The Cowboy + </h2> + <p> + The Great West, vast and rude, brought forth men also vast and rude. We + pass today over parts of that matchless region, and we see the red hills + and ragged mountain-fronts cut and crushed into huge indefinite shapes, to + which even a small imagination may give a human or more than human form. + It would almost seem that the same great hand which chiseled out these + monumental forms had also laid its fingers upon the people of this region + and fashioned them rude and ironlike, in harmony with the stern faces set + about them. + </p> + <p> + Of all the babes of that primeval mother, the West, the cowboy was perhaps + her dearest because he was her last. Some of her children lived for + centuries; this one for not a triple decade before he began to be old. + What was really the life of this child of the wild region of America, and + what were the conditions of the experience that bore him, can never be + fully known by those who have not seen the West with wide eyes—for + the cowboy was simply a part of the West. He who does not understand the + one can never understand the other. + </p> + <p> + If we care truly to see the cowboy as he was and seek to give our wish the + dignity of a real purpose, we should study him in connection with his + surroundings and in relation to his work. Then we shall see him not as a + curiosity but as a product—not as an eccentric driver of horned + cattle but as a man suited to his times. + </p> + <p> + Large tracts of that domain where once the cowboy reigned supreme have + been turned into farms by the irrigator's ditch or by the dry-farmer's + plan. The farmer in overalls is in many instances his own stockman today. + On the ranges of Arizona, Wyoming, and Texas and parts of Nevada we may + find the cowboy, it is true, even today: but he is no longer the Homeric + figure that once dominated the plains. In what we say as to his trade, + therefore, or his fashion in the practice of it, we speak in terms of + thirty or forty years ago, when wire was unknown, when the round-up still + was necessary, and the cowboy's life was indeed that of the open. + </p> + <p> + By the costume we may often know the man. The cowboy's costume was + harmonious with its surroundings. It was planned upon lines of such stern + utility as to leave no possible thing which we may call dispensable. The + typical cowboy costume could hardly be said to contain a coat and + waistcoat. The heavy woolen shirt, loose and open at the neck, was the + common wear at all seasons of the year excepting winter, and one has often + seen cowboys in the winter-time engaged in work about the yard or corral + of the ranch wearing no other cover for the upper part of the body but one + or more of these heavy shirts. If the cowboy wore a coat he would wear it + open and loose as much as possible. If he wore a "vest" he would wear it + slouchily, hanging open or partly unbuttoned most of the time. There was a + reason for this slouchy habit. The cowboy would say that the vest closely + buttoned about the body would cause perspiration, so that the wearer would + quickly chill upon ceasing exercise. If the wind were blowing keenly when + the cowboy dismounted to sit upon the ground for dinner, he would button + up his waistcoat and be warm. If it were very cold he would button up his + coat also. + </p> + <p> + The cowboy's boots were of fine leather and fitted tightly, with light + narrow soles, extremely small and high heels. Surely a more irrational + foot-covering never was invented; yet these tight, peaked cowboy boots had + a great significance and may indeed be called the insignia of a calling. + There was no prouder soul on earth than the cowboy. He was proud of being + a horseman and had a contempt for all human beings who walked. On foot in + his tight-toed boots he was lost; but he wished it to be understood that + he never was on foot. If we rode beside him and watched his seat in the + big cow saddle we found that his high and narrow heels prevented the + slipping forward of the foot in the stirrup, into which he jammed his feet + nearly full length. If there was a fall, the cowboy's foot never hung in + the stirrup. In the corral roping, afoot, his heels anchored him. So he + found his little boots not so unserviceable and retained them as a matter + of pride. Boots made for the cowboy trade sometimes had fancy tops of + bright-colored leather. The Lone Star of Texas was not infrequent in their + ornamentation. + </p> + <p> + The curious pride of the horseman extended also to his gloves. The cowboy + was very careful in the selection of his gloves. They were made of the + finest buckskin, which could not be injured by wetting. Generally they + were tanned white and cut with a deep cuff or gauntlet from which hung a + little fringe to flutter in the wind when he rode at full speed on + horseback. + </p> + <p> + The cowboy's hat was one of the typical and striking features of his + costumes. It was a heavy, wide, white felt hat with a heavy leather band + buckled about it. There has been no other head covering devised so + suitable as the Stetson for the uses of the Plains, although high and + heavy black hats have in part supplanted it today among stockmen. The + boardlike felt was practically indestructible. The brim flapped a little + and, in time, was turned up and perhaps held fast to the crown by a thong. + The wearer might sometimes stiffen the brim by passing a thong through a + series of holes pierced through the outer edge. He could depend upon his + hat in all weathers. In the rain it was an umbrella; in the sun a shield; + in the winter he could tie it down about his ears with his handkerchief. + </p> + <p> + Loosely thrown about the cowboy's shirt collar was a silk kerchief. It was + tied in a hard knot in front, and though it could scarcely be said to be + devoted to the uses of a neck scarf, yet it was a great comfort to the + back of the neck when one was riding in a hot wind. It was sure to be of + some bright color, usually red. Modern would-be cowpunchers do not + willingly let this old kerchief die, and right often they over-play it. + For the cowboy of the "movies," however, let us register an unqualified + contempt. The real range would never have been safe for him. + </p> + <p> + A peculiar and distinctive feature of the cowboy's costume was his "chaps" + (_chaparejos_). The chaps were two very wide and full-length trouser-legs + made of heavy calfskin and connected by a narrow belt or strap. They were + cut away entirely at front and back so that they covered only the thigh + and lower legs and did not heat the body as a complete leather garment + would. They were intended solely as a protection against branches, thorns, + briers, and the like, but they were prized in cold or wet weather. + Sometimes there was seen, more often on the southern range, a cowboy + wearing chaps made of skins tanned with the hair on; for the cowboy of the + Southwest early learned that goatskin left with the hair on would turn the + cactus thorns better than any other material. Later, the chaps became a + sort of affectation on the part of new men on the range; but the old-time + cowboy wore them for use, not as a uniform. In hot weather he laid them + off. + </p> + <p> + In the times when some men needed guns and all men carried them, no pistol + of less than 44-caliber was tolerated on the range, the solid framed + 45-caliber being the one almost universally used. The barrel was eight + inches long, and it shot a rifle cartridge of forty grains of powder and a + blunt-ended bullet that made a terrible missile. This weapon depended from + a belt worn loose resting upon the left hip and hanging low down on the + right hip so that none of the weight came upon the abdomen. This was + typical, for the cowboy was neither fancy gunman nor army officer. The + latter carries the revolver on the left, the butt pointing forward. + </p> + <p> + An essential part of the cow-puncher's outfit was his "rope." This was + carried in a close coil at the side of the saddle-horn, fastened by one of + the many thongs scattered over the saddle. In the Spanish country it was + called _reata_ and even today is sometimes seen in the Southwest made of + rawhide. In the South it was called a _lariat_. The modern rope is a + well-made three-quarter-inch hemp rope about thirty feet in length, with a + leather or rawhide eye. The cowboy's quirt was a short heavy whip, the + stock being of wood or iron covered with braided leather and carrying a + lash made of two or three heavy loose thongs. The spur in the old days had + a very large rowel with blunt teeth an inch long. It was often ornamented + with little bells or oblongs of metal, the tinkling of which appealed to + the childlike nature of the Plains rider. Their use was to lock the rowel. + </p> + <p> + His bridle—for, since the cowboy and his mount are inseparable, we + may as well speak of his horse's dress also—was noticeable for its + tremendously heavy and cruel curbed bit, known as the "Spanish bit." But + in the ordinary riding and even in the exciting work of the old round-up + and in "cutting out," the cowboy used the bit very little, nor exerted any + pressure on the reins. He laid the reins against the neck of the pony + opposite to the direction in which he wished it to go, merely turning his + hand in the direction and inclining his body in the same way. He rode with + the pressure of the knee and the inclination of the body and the light + side-shifting of both reins. The saddle was the most important part of the + outfit. It was a curious thing, this saddle developed by the cattle trade, + and the world has no other like it. Its great weight—from thirty to + forty pounds—was readily excusable when one remembers that it was + not only seat but workbench for the cowman. A light saddle would be torn + to pieces at the first rush of a maddened steer, but the sturdy frame of a + cow-saddle would throw the heaviest bull on the range. The high cantle + would give a firmness to the cowboy's seat when he snubbed a steer with a + sternness sufficient to send it rolling heels over head. The high pommel, + or "horn," steel-forged and covered with cross braids of leather, served + as anchor post for this same steer, a turn of the rope about it + accomplishing that purpose at once. The saddle-tree forked low down over + the pony's back so that the saddle sat firmly and could not readily be + pulled off. The great broad cinches bound the saddle fast till horse and + saddle were practically one fabric. The strong wooden house of the old + heavy stirrup protected the foot from being crushed by the impact of the + herd. The form of the cow-saddle has changed but little, although today + one sees a shorter seat and smaller horn, a "swell front" or roll, and a + stirrup of open "ox-bow" pattern. + </p> + <p> + The round-up was the harvest of the range. The time of the calf round-up + was in the spring after the grass had become good and after the calves had + grown large enough for the branding. The State Cattle Association divided + the entire State range into a number of round-up districts. Under an + elected round-up captain were all the bosses in charge of the different + ranch outfits sent by men having cattle in the round-up. Let us briefly + draw a picture of this scene as it was. + </p> + <p> + Each cowboy would have eight or ten horses for his own use, for he had now + before him the hardest riding of the year. When the cow-puncher went into + the herd to cut out calves he mounted a fresh horse, and every few hours + he again changed horses, for there was no horse which could long endure + the fatigue of the rapid and intense work of cutting. Before the rider + stretched a sea of interwoven horns, waving and whirling as the densely + packed ranks of cattle closed in or swayed apart. It was no prospect for a + weakling, but into it went the cow-puncher on his determined little horse, + heeding not the plunging, crushing, and thrusting of the excited cattle. + Down under the bulks of the herd, half hid in the whirl of dust, he would + spy a little curly calf running, dodging, and twisting, always at the + heels of its mother; and he would dart in after, following the two through + the thick of surging and plunging beasts. The sharp-eyed pony would see + almost as soon as his rider which cow was wanted and he needed small + guidance from that time on. He would follow hard at her heels, edging her + constantly toward the flank of the herd, at times nipping her hide as a + reminder of his own superiority. In spite of herself the cow would + gradually turn out toward the edge, and at last would be swept clear of + the crush, the calf following close behind her. There was a whirl of the + rope and the calf was laid by the heels and dragged to the fire where the + branding irons were heated and ready. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile other cow-punchers are rushing calves to the branding. The + hubbub and turmoil increase. Taut ropes cross the ground in many + directions. The cutting ponies pant and sweat, rear and plunge. The garb + of the cowboy is now one of white alkali which hangs gray in his eyebrows + and moustache. Steers bellow as they surge to and fro. Cows charge on + their persecutors. Fleet yearlings break and run for the open, pursued by + men who care not how or where they ride. + </p> + <p> + We have spoken in terms of the past. There is no calf round-up of the open + range today. The last of the roundups was held in Routt County, Colorado, + several years ago, so far as the writer knows, and it had only to do with + shifting cattle from the summer to the winter range. + </p> + <p> + After the calf round-up came the beef round-up, the cowman's final + harvest. This began in July or August. Only the mature or fatted animals + were cut out from the herd. This "beef cut" was held apart and driven on + ahead from place to place as the round-up progressed. It was then driven + in by easy stages to the shipping point on the railroad, whence the long + trainloads of cattle went to the great markets. + </p> + <p> + In the heyday of the cowboy it was natural that his chief amusements + should be those of the outdoor air and those more or less in line with his + employment. He was accustomed to the sight of big game, and so had the + edge of his appetite for its pursuit worn off. Yet he was a hunter, just + as every Western man was a hunter in the times of the Western game. His + weapons were the rifle, revolver, and rope; the latter two were always + with him. With the rope at times he captured the coyote, and under special + conditions he has taken deer and even antelope in this way, though this + was of course most unusual and only possible under chance conditions of + ground and cover. Elk have been roped by cowboys many times, and it is + known that even the mountain sheep has been so taken, almost incredible as + that may seem. The young buffalo were easy prey for the cowboy and these + he often roped and made captive. In fact the beginnings of all the herds + of buffalo now in captivity in this country were the calves roped and + secured by cowboys; and these few scattered individuals of a grand race of + animals remain as melancholy reminders alike of a national shiftlessness + and an individual skill and daring. + </p> + <p> + The grizzly was at times seen by the cowboys on the range, and if it + chanced that several cowboys were together it was not unusual to give him + chase. They did not always rope him, for it was rarely that the nature of + the country made this possible. Sometimes they roped him and wished they + could let him go, for a grizzly bear is uncommonly active and + straightforward in his habits at close quarters. The extreme difficulty of + such a combat, however, gave it its chief fascination for the cowboy. Of + course, no one horse could hold the bear after it was roped, but, as one + after another came up, the bear was caught by neck and foot and body, + until at last he was tangled and tripped and hauled about till he was + helpless, strangled, and nearly dead. It is said that cowboys have so + brought into camp a grizzly bear, forcing him to half walk and half slide + at the end of the ropes. No feat better than this could show the courage + of the plainsman and of the horse which he so perfectly controlled. + </p> + <p> + Of such wild and dangerous exploits were the cowboy's amusements on the + range. It may be imagined what were his amusements when he visited the + "settlements." The cow-punchers, reared in the free life of the open air, + under circumstances of the utmost freedom of individual action, perhaps + came off the drive or round-up after weeks or months of unusual restraint + or hardship, and felt that the time had arrived for them to "celebrate." + Merely great rude children, as wild and untamed and untaught as the herds + they led, they regarded their first look at the "settlements" of the + railroads as a glimpse of a wider world. They pursued to the uttermost + such avenues of new experience as lay before them, almost without + exception avenues of vice. It is strange that the records of those days + should be chosen by the public to be held as the measure of the American + cowboy. Those days were brief, and they are long since gone. The American + cowboy atoned for them by a quarter of a century of faithful labor. + </p> + <p> + The amusements of the cowboy were like the features of his daily + surroundings and occupation—they were intense, large, Homeric. Yet, + judged at his work, no higher type of employee ever existed, nor one more + dependable. He was the soul of honor in all the ways of his calling. The + very blue of the sky, bending evenly over all men alike, seemed to + symbolize his instinct for justice. Faithfulness and manliness were his + chief traits; his standard—to be a "square man." + </p> + <p> + Not all the open range will ever be farmed, but very much that was long + thought to be irreclaimable has gone under irrigation or is being more or + less successfully "dry-farmed." The man who brought water upon the arid + lands of the West changed the entire complexion of a vast country and with + it the industries of that country. Acres redeemed from the desert and + added to the realm of the American farmer were taken from the realm of the + American cowboy. + </p> + <p> + The West has changed. The curtain has dropped between us and its wild and + stirring scenes. The old days are gone. The house dog sits on the hill + where yesterday the coyote sang. There are fenced fields and in them stand + sleek round beasts, deep in crops such as their ancestors never saw. In a + little town nearby is the hurry and bustle of modern life. This town is + far out upon what was called the frontier, long after the frontier has + really gone. Guarding its ghost here stood a little army post, once one of + the pillars, now one of the monuments of the West. + </p> + <p> + Out from the tiny settlement in the dusk of evening, always facing toward + where the sun is sinking, might be seen riding, not so long ago, a figure + we should know. He would thread the little lane among the fences, + following the guidance of hands other than his own, a thing he would once + have scorned to do. He would ride as lightly and as easily as ever, + sitting erect and jaunty in the saddle, his reins held high and loose in + the hand whose fingers turn up gracefully, his whole body free yet firm in + the saddle with the seat of the perfect horseman. At the boom of the + cannon, when the flag dropped fluttering down to sleep, he would rise in + his stirrups and wave his hat to the flag. Then, toward the edge, out into + the evening, he would ride on. The dust of his riding would mingle with + the dusk of night. We could not see which was the one or the other. We + could only hear the hoofbeats passing, boldly and steadily still, but + growing fainter, fainter, and more faint. * + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + * For permission to use in this chapter material from the +author's "The Story of the Cowboy," acknowledgment is made to D. +Appleton & Co. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter V. The Mines + </h2> + <p> + If the influence of the cattle industry was paramount in the development + of the frontier region found by the first railways, it should not be + concluded that this upthrust of the southern cattle constituted the only + contribution to the West of that day. There were indeed earlier + influences, the chief of which was the advent of the wild population of + the placer mines. The riches of the gold-fields hastened the building of + the first transcontinental railroads and the men of the mines set their + mark also indelibly upon the range. + </p> + <p> + It is no part of our business here to follow the great discoveries of 1849 + in California. * Neither shall we chronicle the once-famous rushes from + California north into the Fraser River Valley of British Columbia; neither + is it necessary to mention in much detail the great camps of Nevada; nor + yet the short-lived stampede of 1859 to the Pike's Peak country in + Colorado. The rich placer fields of Idaho and Montana, from which enormous + amounts were taken, offer typical examples of the mining communities of + the Rockies. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + * See Stewart Edward White: "The Forty-Niners" ("Chronicles of +America"). +</pre> + <p> + We may never know how much history remains forever unwritten. Of the + beginnings of the Idaho camps there have trickled back into record only + brief, inconsequent, and partial stories. The miners who surged this way + and that all through the Sierras, the upper Cascades, north into the + Selkirks, and thence back again into the Rockies were a turbulent mob. + Having overrun all our mountain ranges, following the earlier trails of + the traders and trappers, they now recoiled upon themselves and rolled + back eastward to meet the advancing civilization of the westbound rails, + caring nothing for history and less for the civilized society in which + they formerly had lived. This story of bedlam broken loose, of men gone + crazed, by the sudden subversion of all known values and all standards of + life, was at first something which had no historian and can be recorded + only by way of hearsay stories which do not always tally as to the truth. + </p> + <p> + The mad treasure-hunters of the California mines, restless, insubordinate, + incapable of restraint, possessed of the belief that there might be gold + elsewhere than in California, and having heard reports of strikes to the + north, went hurrying out into the mountains of Oregon and Washington, in a + wild stampede, all eager again to engage in the glorious gamble where by + one lucky stroke of the pick a man might be set free of the old + limitations of human existence. + </p> + <p> + So the flood of gold-seekers—passing north into the Fraser River + country, south again into Oregon and Washington, and across the great + desert plains into Nevada and Idaho—made new centers of lurid + activity, such as Oro Fino, Florence, and Carson. Then it was that Walla + Walla and Lewiston, outfitting points on the western side of the range, + found place upon the maps of the land, such as they were. + </p> + <p> + Before these adventurers, now eastbound and no longer facing west, there + arose the vast and formidable mountain ranges which in their time had + daunted even the calm minds of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. But the + prospectors and the pack-trains alike penetrated the Salmon River Range. + Oro Fino, in Idaho, was old in 1861. The next great strikes were to be + made around Florence. Here the indomitable packer from the West, + conquering unheard-of difficulties, brought in whiskey, women, pianos, + food, mining-tools. Naturally all these commanded fabulous prices. The + price for each and all lay underfoot. Man, grown superman, could overleap + time itself by a stroke of the pick! What wonder delirium reigned! + </p> + <p> + These events became known in the Mississippi Valley and farther eastward. + And now there came hurrying out from the older regions many more hundreds + and thousands eager to reach a land not so far as California, but reputed + to be quite as rich. It was then, as the bull-trains came in from the + East, from the head of navigation on the Missouri River, that the western + outfitting points of Walla Walla and Lewiston lost their importance. + </p> + <p> + Southward of the Idaho camps the same sort of story was repeating itself. + Nevada had drawn to herself a portion of the wild men of the stampedes. + Carson for its day (1859-60) was a capital not unlike the others. Some of + its men had come down from the upper fields, some had arrived from the + East over the old Santa Fe Trail, and yet others had drifted in from + California. + </p> + <p> + All the camps were very much alike. A straggling row of log cabins or huts + of motley construction; a few stores so-called, sometimes of logs, or, if + a saw-mill was at hand, of rude sawn boards; a number of saloons, each of + which customarily also supported a dance-hall; a series of cabins or huts + where dwelt individual men, each doing his own cooking and washing; and + outside these huts the uptorn earth—such were the camps which dotted + the trails of the stampedes across inhospitable deserts and mountain + ranges. Church and school were unknown. Law there was none, for of + organized society there was none. The women who lived there were unworthy + of the name of woman. The men strode about in the loose dress of the camp, + sometimes without waistcoat, sometimes coatless, shod with heavy boots, + always armed. + </p> + <p> + If we look for causes contributory to the history of the mining-camp, we + shall find one which ordinarily is overlooked—the invention of + Colt's revolving pistol. At the time of the Civil War, though this weapon + was not old, yet it had attained very general use throughout the frontier. + That was before the day of modern ammunition. The six-shooter of the + placer days was of the old cap-and-ball type, heavy, long-barreled, and + usually wooden-handled. It was the general ownership of these deadly + weapons which caused so much bloodshed in the camps. The revolver in the + hands of a tyro is not especially serviceable, but it attained great + deadliness in the hands of an expert user. Such a man, naturally of quick + nerve reflexes, skillful and accurate in the use of the weapon through + long practice, became a dangerous, and for a time an unconquerable, + antagonist. + </p> + <p> + It is a curious fact that the great Montana fields were doubly discovered, + in part by men coming east from California, and in part by men passing + west in search of new gold-fields. The first discovery of gold in Montana + was made on Gold Creek by a half-breed trapper named Francois, better + known as Be-net-see. This was in 1852, but the news seems to have lain + dormant for a time—naturally enough, for there was small ingress or + egress for that wild and unknown country. In 1857, however, a party of + miners who had wandered down the Big Hole River on their way back east + from California decided to look into the Gold Creek discovery, of which + they had heard. This party was led by James and Granville Stuart, and + among others in the party were Jake Meeks, Robert Hereford, Robert + Dempsey, John W. Powell, John M. Jacobs, Thomas Adams, and some others. + These men did some work on Gold Creek in 1858, but seem not to have struck + it very rich, and to have withdrawn to Fort Bridger in Utah until the + autumn of 1860. Then a prospector by the name of Tom Golddigger turned up + at Bridger with additional stories of creeks to the north, so that there + was a gradual straggling back toward Gold Creek and other gulches. This + prospector had been all over the Alder Gulch, which was ere long to prove + fabulously rich. + </p> + <p> + It was not, however, until 1863 that the Montana camps sprang into fame. + It was not Gold Creek or Alder Gulch, but Florence and other Idaho camps, + that, in the summer and autumn of 1862, brought into the mountains no less + than five parties of gold-seekers, who remained in Montana because they + could not penetrate the mountain barrier which lay between them and the + Salmon River camps in Idaho. + </p> + <p> + The first of these parties arrived at Gold Creek by wagon-train from Fort + Benton and the second hailed from Salt Lake. An election was held for the + purpose of forming a sort of community organization, the first election + ever known in Montana. The men from the East had brought with them some + idea of law and organization. There were now in the Montana fields many + good men such as the Stuart Brothers, Samuel T. Hauser, Walter Dance, and + others later well known in the State. These men were prominent in the + organization of the first miners' court, which had occasion to try—and + promptly to hang—Stillman and Jernigan, two ruffians who had been in + from the Salmon River mines only about four days when they thus met + retribution for their early crimes. An associate of theirs, Arnett, had + been killed while resisting arrest. The reputation of Florence for + lawlessness and bloodshed was well known; and, as the outrages of the + well-organized band of desperadoes operating in Idaho might be expected to + begin at any time in Montana, a certain uneasiness existed among the + newcomers from the States. + </p> + <p> + Two more parties, likewise bound for Idaho and likewise baffled by the + Salmon River range, arrived at the Montana camps in the same summer. Both + these were from the Pike's Peak country in Colorado. And in the autumn + came a fifth—this one under military protection, Captain James L. + Fisk commanding, and having in the party a number of settlers bound for + Oregon as well as miners for Idaho. This expedition arrived in the Prickly + Pear Valley in Montana on September 21, 1862, having left St. Paul on the + 16th of June, traveling by steamboat and wagon-train. While Captain Fisk + and his expedition pushed on to Walla Walla, nearly half of the immigrants + stayed to try their luck at placer-mining. But the yield was not great and + the distant Salmon River mines, their original destination, still awaited + them. Winter was approaching. It was now too late in the season to reach + the Salmon River mines, five hundred miles across the mountains, and it + was four hundred miles to Salt Lake, the nearest supply post; therefore, + most of the men joined this little army of prospectors in Montana. Some of + them drifted to the Grasshopper diggings, soon to be known under the name + of Bannack—one of the wildest mining-camps of its day. + </p> + <p> + These different origins of the population of the first Montana camps are + interesting because of the fact that they indicate a difference in the two + currents of population which now met here in the new placer fields. In + general the wildest and most desperate of the old-time adventurers, those + coming from the West, had located in the Idaho camps, and might be + expected in Montana at any time. In contrast to these, the men lately out + from the States were of a different type, many of them sober, most of them + law-abiding, men who had come out to better their fortunes and not merely + to drop into the wild and licentious life of a placercamp. Law and order + always did prevail eventually in any mining community. In the case of + Montana, law and order arrived almost synchronously with lawlessness and + desperadoism. + </p> + <p> + Law and order had not long to wait before the arrival of the notorious + Henry Plummer and his band from Florence. Plummer was already known as a + bad man, but was not yet recognized as the leader of that secret + association of robbers and murderers which had terrorized the Idaho camps. + He celebrated his arrival in Bannack by killing a man named Cleveland. He + was acquitted in the miners' court that tried him, on the usual plea of + self-defense. He was a man of considerable personal address. + </p> + <p> + The same tribunal soon assembled once more to try three other murderers, + Moore, Reeves, and Mitchell, with the agreement that the men should have a + jury and should be provided with counsel. They were all practically freed; + and after that the roughs grew bolder than ever. The Plummer band swore to + kill every man who had served in that court, whether as juryman or + officer. So well did they make good their threat that out of the + twenty-seven men thus engaged all but seven were either killed or driven + out of the country, nine being murdered outright. The man who had acted as + sheriff of this miners' court, Hank Crawford, was unceasingly hounded by + Plummer, who sought time and again to fix a quarrel on him. Plummer was + the best shot in the mountains at that time, and he thought it would be + easy for him to kill his man and enter the usual plea of self-defense. By + good fortune, however, Crawford caught Plummer off his guard and fired + upon him with a rifle, breaking his right arm. Plummer's friends called in + Dr. Glick, the best physician in Bannack, to treat the wounded man, + warning him that if he told anything about the visit he would be shot + down. Glick held his peace, and later was obliged to attend many of the + wounded outlaws, who were always engaged in affairs with firearms. + </p> + <p> + Of all these wild affrays, of the savage life which they denoted, and of + the stern ways in which retribution overtook the desperadoes of the mines, + there is no better historian than Nathaniel P. Langford, a prominent + citizen of the West, who accompanied the overland expedition of 1862 and + took part in the earliest life of Montana. His work, "Vigilante Days and + Ways," is an invaluable contemporary record. + </p> + <p> + It is mentally difficult for us now fully to restore these scenes, + although the events occurred no earlier than the Civil War. "Life in + Bannack at this time," says Langford, "was perfect isolation from the rest + of the world. Napoleon was not more of an exile on St. Helena than a newly + arrived immigrant from the States in this region of lakes and mountains. + All the great battles of the season of 1862—Antietam, + Fredericksburg, Second Bull Run—all the exciting debates of + Congress, and the more exciting combats at sea, first became known to us + on the arrival of newspapers and letters in the spring of 1863." + </p> + <p> + The Territory of Idaho, which included Montana and nearly all Wyoming, was + organized March 3, 1863. Previous to that time western Montana and Idaho + formed a part of Washington Territory, of which Olympia was the capital, + and Montana, east of the mountains, belonged to the Territory of Dakota, + of which the capital was Yankton, on the Missouri. Langford makes clear + the political uncertainties of the time, the difficulty of enforcing the + laws, and narrates the circumstances which led to the erection in 1864 of + the new Territory of Montana, comprising the limits of the present State. + * + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + * The Acts of Congress organizing Territories and admitting +States are milestones in the occupation of this last West. On the eve of +the Civil War, Kansas was admitted into the Union; during the war, the +Territories of Colorado, Nevada, Dakota, Arizona, Idaho, and Montana +were organized, and Nevada was admitted as a State. Immediately after +the war, Nebraska was admitted and Wyoming was organized as a Territory. +In the Centennial Year (1876) Colorado became a State. In 1889 and 1890 +North and South Dakota, Montana, Washington, Idaho, and Wyoming were +admitted as States. In the latter year Oklahoma was carved out of the +Indian Territory. Utah with its Mormon population was kept waiting at +the doors of the Union until 1896. Oklahoma became a State in 1907; +Arizona and New Mexico were admitted in 1912. +</pre> + <p> + In Montana as elsewhere in these days of great sectional bitterness, there + was much political strife; and this no doubt accounts for an astonishing + political event that now took place. Henry Plummer, the most active outlaw + of his day, was elected sheriff and entrusted with the enforcement of the + laws! He made indeed a great show of enforcing the laws. He married, + settled down, and for a time was thought by some of the ill-advised to + have reformed his ways, although in truth he could not have reformed. + </p> + <p> + By June, 1863, the extraordinarily rich strike in Alder Gulch had been + made. The news of this spread like wildfire to Bannack and to the Salmon + River mines in Idaho as well, and the result was one of the fiercest of + all the stampedes, and the rise, almost overnight, of Virginia City. + Meanwhile some Indian fighting had taken place and in a pitched battle on + the Bear River General Connor had beaten decisively the Bannack Indians, + who for years had preyed on the emigrant trains. This made travel on the + mountain trails safer than it had been; and the rich Last Chance Gulch on + which the city of Helena now stands attracted a tremendous population + almost at once. The historian above cited lived there. Let him tell of the + life. + </p> + <p> + "One long stream of active life filled the little creek on its auriferous + course from Bald Mountain, through a canyon of wild and picturesque + character, until it emerged into the large and fertile valley of the + Pas-sam-a-ri... the mountain stream called by Lewis and Clark in their + journal 'Philanthropy River.' Lateral streams of great beauty pour down + the sides of the mountain chain bounding the valley.... Gold placers were + found upon these streams and occupied soon after the settlement at + Virginia City was commenced.... This human hive, numbering at least ten + thousand people, was the product of ninety days. Into it were crowded all + the elements of a rough and active civilization. Thousands of cabins and + tents and brush wakiups... were seen on every hand. Every foot of the + gulch... was undergoing displacement, and it was already disfigured by + huge heaps of gravel which had been passed through the sluices and rifled + of their glittering contents.... Gold was abundant, and every possible + device was employed by the gamblers, the traders, the vile men and women + that had come in with the miners into the locality, to obtain it. Nearly + every third cabin was a saloon where vile whiskey was peddled out for + fifty cents a drink in gold dust. Many of these places were filled with + gambling tables and gamblers.... Hurdy-gurdy dance-houses were + numerous.... Not a day or night passed which did not yield its full + fruition of vice, quarrels, wounds, or murders. The crack of the revolver + was often heard above the merry notes of the violin. Street fights were + frequent, and as no one knew when or where they would occur, every one was + on his guard against a random shot. + </p> + <p> + "Sunday was always a gala day.... The stores were all open.... Thousands + of people crowded the thoroughfares ready to rush in the direction of any + promised excitement. Horse-racing was among the most favored amusements. + Prize rings were formed, and brawny men engaged in fisticuffs until their + sight was lost and their bodies pommelled to a jelly, while hundreds of + onlookers cheered the victor.... Pistols flashed, bowie knives flourished, + and braggart oaths filled the air, as often as men's passions triumphed + over their reason. This was indeed the reign of unbridled license, and men + who at first regarded it with disgust and terror, by constant exposure + soon learned to become a part of it and forget that they had ever been + aught else. All classes of society were represented at this general + exhibition. Judges, lawyers, doctors, even clergymen, could not claim + exemption. Culture and religion afforded feeble protection, where + allurement and indulgence ruled the hour." + </p> + <p> + Imagine, therefore, a fabulously rich mountain valley twelve miles in + extent, occupied by more than ten thousand men and producing more than ten + millions of dollars before the close of the first year! It is a stupendous + demand on any imagination. How might all this gold be sent out in + safe-keeping? We are told that the only stage route extended from Virginia + City no farther than Bannack. Between Virginia City and Salt Lake City + there was an absolute wilderness, wholly unsettled, four hundred and + seventy-five miles in width. "There was no post office in the Territory. + Letters were brought from Salt Lake first at a cost of two dollars and a + half each, and later in the season at one dollar each. All money at + infinite risk was sent to the nearest express office at Salt Lake City by + private hands." + </p> + <p> + Practically every man in the new gold-fields was aware of the existence of + a secret band of well-organized ruffians and robbers. The general feeling + was one of extreme uneasiness. There were plenty of men who had taken out + of the ground considerable quantities of gold, and who would have been + glad to get back to the East with their little fortunes, but they dared + not start. Time after time the express coach, the solitary rider, the + unguarded wagon-train, were held up and robbed, usually with the + concomitant of murder. When the miners did start out from one camp to + another they took all manner of precautions to conceal their gold dust. We + are told that on one occasion one party bored a hole in the end of the + wagon tongue with an auger and filled it full of gold dust, thus escaping + observation! The robbers learned to know the express agents, and always + had advice of every large shipment of gold. It was almost useless to + undertake to conceal anything from them; and resistance was met with + death. Such a reign of terror, such an organized system of highway + robbery, such a light valuing of human life, has been seldom found in any + other time or place. + </p> + <p> + There were, as we have seen, good men in these camps—although the + best of them probably let down the standards of living somewhat after + their arrival there; but the trouble was that the good men did not know + one another, had no organization, and scarcely dared at first to attempt + one. On the other hand, the robbers' organization was complete and kept + its secrets as the grave; indeed, many and many a lonesome grave held + secrets none ever was to know. How many men went out from Eastern States + and disappeared, their fate always to remain a mystery, is a part of the + untold story of the mining frontier. + </p> + <p> + There are known to have been a hundred and two men killed by Plummer and + his gang; how many were murdered without their fate ever being discovered + can not be told. Plummer was the leader of the band, but, arch-hypocrite + that he was, he managed to keep his own connection with it a secret. His + position as sheriff gave him many advantages. He posed as being a + silver-mine expert, among other things, and often would be called out to + "expert" some new mine. That usually meant that he left town in order to + commit some desperate robbery. The boldest outrages always required + Plummer as the leader. Sometimes he would go away on the pretense of + following some fugitive from justice. His horse, the fleetest in the + country, often was found, laboring and sweating, at the rear of his house. + That meant that Plummer had been away on some secret errand of his own. He + was suspected many times, but nothing could be fastened upon him; or there + lacked sufficient boldness and sufficient organization on the part of the + law-and-order men to undertake his punishment. + </p> + <p> + We are not concerned with repeating thrilling tales, bloody almost beyond + belief, and indicative of an incomprehensible depravity in human nature, + so much as we are with the causes and effects of this wild civilization + which raged here quite alone in the midst of one of the wildest of the + western mountain regions. It will best serve our purpose to retain in mind + the twofold character of this population, and to remember that the + frontier caught to itself not only ruffians and desperadoes, men undaunted + by any risk, but also men possessed of a yet steadier personal courage and + hardihood. There were men rough, coarse, brutal, murderous; but against + them were other men self-reliant, stern, just, and resolved upon fair + play. + </p> + <p> + That was indeed the touchstone of the entire civilization which followed + upon the heels of these scenes of violence. It was fair play which really + animated the great Montana Vigilante movement and which eventually cleaned + up the merciless gang of Henry Plummer and his associates. The centers of + civilization were far removed. The courts were powerless. In some cases + even the machinery of the law was in the hands of these ruffians. But so + violent were their deeds, so brutal, so murderous, so unfair, that slowly + the indignation of the good men arose to the white-hot point of open + resentment and of swift retribution. What the good men of the frontier + loved most of all was justice. They now enforced justice in the only way + left open to them. They did this as California earlier had done; and they + did it so well that there was small need to repeat the lesson. + </p> + <p> + The actual extermination of the Henry Plummer band occurred rather + promptly when the Vigilantes once got under way. One of the band by the + name of Red Yager, in company with yet another by the name of Brown, had + been concerned in the murder of Lloyd Magruder, a merchant of the + Territory. The capture of these two followed closely upon the hanging of + George Ives, also accused of more than one murder. Ives was an example of + the degrading influence of the mines. He was a decent young man until he + left his home in Wisconsin. He was in California from 1857 to 1858. When + he appeared in Idaho he seemed to have thrown off all restraint and to + have become a common rowdy and desperado. It is said of him that "few men + of his age ever had been guilty of so many fiendish crimes." + </p> + <p> + Yager and Brown, knowing the fate which Ives had met, gave up hope when + they fell into the hands of the newly organized Vigilantes. Brown was + hanged; so was Yager; but Yager, before his death, made a full confession + which put the Vigilantes in possession of information they had never yet + been able to secure. * + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + * Langford gives these names disclosed by Yager as follows: +"Henry Plummer was chief of the band; Bill Bunton, stool pigeon and +second in command; George Brown, secretary; Sam Bunton, roadster; +Cyrus Skinner, fence, spy, and roadster; George Shears, horse thief and +roadster; Frank Parish, horse thief and roadster; Hayes Lyons, telegraph +man and roadster; Bill Hunter, telegraph man and roadster; Ned Ray, +council-room keeper at Bannack City; George Ives, Stephen Marshland, +Dutch John (Wagner), Alex Carter, Whiskey Bill (Graves), Johnny Cooper, +Buck Stinson, Mexican Frank, Bob Zachary, Boone Helm, Clubfoot George +(Lane), Billy Terwiliger, Gad Moore were roadsters." Practically all +these were executed by the Vigilantes, with many others, and eventually +the band of outlaws was entirely broken up. +</pre> + <p> + Much has been written and much romanced about the conduct of these + desperadoes when they met their fate. Some of them were brave and some + proved cowards at the last. For a time, Plummer begged abjectly, his eyes + streaming with tears. Suddenly he was smitten with remorse as the whole + picture of his past life appeared before him. He promised everything, + begged everything, if only life might be spared him—asked his + captors to cut off his ears, to cut out his tongue, then strip him naked + and banish him. At the very last, however, he seems to have become + composed. Stinson and Ray went to their fate alternately swearing and + whining. Some of the ruffians faced death boldly. More than one himself + jumped from the ladder or kicked from under him the box which was the only + foothold between him and eternity. Boone Helm was as hardened as any of + them. This man was a cannibal and murderer. He seems to have had no better + nature whatever. His last words as he sprang off were "Hurrah for Jeff + Davis! Let her rip!" Another man remarked calmly that he cared no more for + hanging than for drinking a glass of water. But each after his own fashion + met the end foreordained for him by his own lack of compassion; and of + compassion he received none at the hands of the men who had resolved that + the law should be established and should remain forever. + </p> + <p> + There was an instant improvement in the social life of Virginia City, + Bannack, and the adjoining camps as soon as it was understood that the + Vigilantes were afoot. Langford, who undoubtedly knew intimately of the + activities of this organization, makes no apology for the acts of the + Vigilantes, although they did not have back of them the color of the + actual law. He says: + </p> + <p> + "The retribution dispensed to these daring freebooters in no respect + exceeded the demands of absolute justice.... There was no other remedy. + Practically the citizens had no law, but if law had existed it could not + have afforded adequate redress. This was proven by the feeling of security + consequent upon the destruction of the band. When the robbers were dead + the people felt safe, not for themselves alone but for their pursuits and + their property. They could travel without fear. They had reasonable + assurance of safety in the transmission of money to the States and in the + arrival of property over the unguarded route from Salt Lake. The crack of + pistols had ceased, and they could walk the streets without constant + exposure to danger. There was an omnipresent spirit of protection, akin to + that omnipresent spirit of law which pervaded older and more civilized + communities.... Young men who had learned to believe that the roughs were + destined to rule and who, under the influence of that faith, were fast + drifting into crime shrunk appalled before the thorough work of the + Vigilantes. Fear, more potent than conscience, forced even the worst of + men to observe the requirements of society, and a feeling of comparative + security among all classes was the result." + </p> + <p> + Naturally it was not the case that all the bad men were thus exterminated. + From time to time there appeared vividly in the midst of these + surroundings additional figures of solitary desperadoes, each to have his + list of victims, and each himself to fall before the weapons of his + enemies or to meet the justice of the law or the sterner meed of the + Vigilantes. It would not be wholly pleasant to read even the names of a + long list of these; perhaps it will be sufficient to select one, the + notorious Joseph Slade, one of the "picturesque" characters of whom a + great deal of inaccurate and puerile history has been written. The truth + about Slade is that he was a good man at first, faithful in the discharge + of his duties as an agent of the stage company. Needing at times to use + violence lawfully, he then began to use it unlawfully. He drank and soon + went from bad to worse. At length his outrages became so numerous that the + men of the community took him out and hanged him. His fate taught many + others the risk of going too far in defiance of law and decency. + </p> + <p> + What has been true regarding the camps of Florence, Bannack, and Virginia + City, had been true in part in earlier camps and was to be repeated + perhaps a trifle less vividly in other camps yet to come. The Black Hills + gold rush, for instance, which came after the railroad but before the + Indians were entirely cleared away, made a certain wild history of its + own. We had our Deadwood stage line then, and our Deadwood City with all + its wild life of drinking, gambling, and shooting—the place where + more than one notorious bad man lost his life, and some capable officers + of the peace shared their fate. To describe in detail the life of this + stampede and the wild scenes ensuing upon it is perhaps not needful here. + The main thing is that the great quartz lodes of the Black Hills support + in the end a steady, thrifty, and law-abiding population. + </p> + <p> + All over that West, once so unspeakably wild and reckless, there now rise + great cities where recently were scattered only mining-camps scarce fit to + be called units of any social compact. It was but yesterday that these men + fought and drank and dug their own graves in their own sluices. At the + city of Helena, on the site of Last Chance Gulch, one recalls that not so + long ago citizens could show with a certain contemporary pride the old + dead tree once known as "Hangman's Tree." It marked a spot which might be + called a focus of the old frontier. Around it, and in the country + immediately adjoining, was fought out the great battle whose issue could + not be doubted—that between the new and the old days; between law + and order and individual lawlessness; between the school and the saloon; + between the home and the dance-hall; between society united and resolved + and the individual reverted to worse than savagery. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter VI. The Pathways Of The West + </h2> + <p> + Since we have declared ourselves to be less interested in bald chronology + than in the naturally connected causes of events which make chronology + worth while, we may now, perhaps, double back upon the path of chronology, + and take up the great early highways of the West—what we might call + the points of attack against the frontier. + </p> + <p> + The story of the Santa Fe Trail, now passing into oblivion, once was on + the tongue of every man. This old highroad in its heyday presented the + most romantic and appealing features of the earlier frontier life. The + Santa Fe Trail was the great path of commerce between our frontier and the + Spanish towns trading through Santa Fe. This commerce began in 1822, when + about threescore men shipped certain goods across the lower Plains by + pack-animals. By 1826 it was employing a hundred men and was using wagons + and mules. In 1830, when oxen first were used on the trail, the trade + amounted to $120,000 annually; and by 1843, when the Spanish ports were + closed, it had reached the value of $450,000, involving the use of 230 + wagons and 350 men. It was this great wagon trail which first brought us + into touch with the Spanish civilization of the Southwest. Its commercial + totals do not bulk large today, but the old trail itself was a thing + titanic in its historic value. + </p> + <p> + This was the day not of water but of land transport; yet the wheeled + vehicles which passed out into the West as common carriers of civilization + clung to the river valleys—natural highways and natural resting + places of home-building man. This has been the story of the advance of + civilization from the first movements of the world's peoples. The valleys + are the cleats of civilization's golden sluices. + </p> + <p> + There lay the great valley of the Arkansas, offering food and water, an + easy grade and a direct course reaching out into the West, even to the + edge of the lands of Spain; and here stood wheeled vehicles able to + traverse it and to carry drygoods and hardware, and especially domestic + cotton fabrics, which formed the great staple of a "Santa Fe assortment." + The people of the Middle West were now, in short, able to feed and clothe + themselves and to offer a little of their surplus merchandise to some one + else in sale. They had begun to export! Out yonder, in a strange and + unknown land, lay one of the original markets of America! + </p> + <p> + On the heels of Lewis and Clark, who had just explored the Missouri River + route to the Northwest, Captain Zebulon Pike of the Army, long before the + first wheeled traffic started West, had employed this valley of the + Arkansas in his search for the southwestern delimitations of the United + States. Pike thought he had found the head of the Red River when after a + toilsome and dangerous march he reached the headwaters of the Rio Grande. + But it was not our river. It belonged to Spain, as he learned to his + sorrow, when he marched all the way to Chihuahua in old Mexico and lay + there during certain weary months. + </p> + <p> + It was Pike's story of the far Southwest that first started the idea of + the commerce of the Santa Fe Trail. In that day geography was a human + thing, a thing of vital importance to all men. Men did not read the stock + markets; they read stories of adventure, tales of men returned from lands + out yonder in the West. Heretofore the swarthy Mexicans, folk of the dry + plains and hills around the head of the Rio Grande and the Red, had + carried their cotton goods and many other small and needful things all the + way from Vera Cruz on the seacoast, over trails that were long, tedious, + uncertain, and expensive. A far shorter and more natural trade route went + west along the Arkansas, which would bring the American goods to the doors + of the Spanish settlements. After Pike and one or two others had returned + with reports of the country, the possibilities of this trade were clear to + any one with the merchant's imagination. + </p> + <p> + There is rivalry for the title of "Father of the Santa Fe Trail." As early + as 1812, when the United States was at war with England, a party of men on + horseback trading into the West, commonly called the McKnight, Baird, and + Chambers party, made their way west to Santa Fe. There, however, they met + with disaster. All their goods were confiscated and they themselves lay in + Mexican jails for nine years. Eventually the returning survivors of this + party told their stories, and those stories, far from chilling, only + inflamed the ardor of other adventurous traders. In 1821 more than one + American trader reached Santa Fe; and, now that the Spanish yoke had been + thrown off by the Mexicans, the goods, instead of being confiscated, were + purchased eagerly. + </p> + <p> + It is to be remembered, of course, that trading of this sort to Mexico was + not altogether a new thing. Sutlers of the old fur traders and trappers + already had found the way to New Spain from the valley of the Platte, + south along the eastern edge of the Rockies, through Wyoming and Colorado. + By some such route as that at least one trader, a French creole, agent of + the firm of Bryant & Morrison at Kaskaskia, had penetrated to the + Spanish lands as early as 1804, while Lewis and Clark were still absent in + the upper wilderness. Each year the great mountain rendezvous of the + trappers—now at Bent's Fort on the Arkansas, now at Horse Creek in + Wyoming, now on Green River in Utah, or even farther beyond the mountains—demanded + supplies of food and traps and ammunition to enable the hunters to + continue their work for another year. Perhaps many of the pack-trains + which regularly supplied this shifting mountain market already had traded + in the Spanish country. + </p> + <p> + It is not necessary to go into further details regarding this primitive + commerce of the prairies. It yielded a certain profit; it shaped the + character of the men who carried it on. But what is yet more important, it + greatly influenced the country which lay back of the border on the + Missouri River. It called yet more men from the eastern settlements to + those portions which lay upon the edge of the Great Plains. There crowded + yet more thickly, up to the line between the certain and the uncertain, + the restless westbound population of all the country. + </p> + <p> + If on the south the valley of the Arkansas led outward to New Spain, yet + other pathways made out from the Mississippi River into the unknown lands. + The Missouri was the first and last of our great natural frontier roads. + Its lower course swept along the eastern edge of the Plains, far to the + south, down to the very doors of the most adventurous settlements in the + Mississippi Valley. Those who dared its stained and turbulent current had + to push up, onward, northward, past the mouth of the Platte, far to the + north across degrees of latitude, steadily forward through a vast virgin + land. Then the river bent boldly and strongly off to the west, across + another empire. Its great falls indicated that it headed high; beyond the + great falls its steady sweep westward and at last southward, led into yet + other kingdoms. + </p> + <p> + When we travel by horse or by modern motor car in that now accessible + region and look about us, we should not fail to reflect on the long trail + of the upbound boats which Manuel Lisa and other traders sent out almost + immediately upon the return of the Lewis and Clark expedition. We should + see them struggling up against that tremendous current before steam was + known, driven by their lust for new lands. We may then understand fully + what we have read of the enterprises of the old American Fur Company, and + bring to mind the forgotten names of Campbell and Sublette, of General + Ashley and of Wyeth—names to be followed by others really of less + importance, as those of Bonneville and Fremont. That there could be farms, + that there ever might be homes, in this strange wild country, was, to + these early adventurers, unthinkable. + </p> + <p> + Then we should picture the millions of buffalo which once covered these + plains and think of the waste and folly of their slaughtering. We should + see the long streams of the Mackinaw boats swimming down the Missouri, + bound for St. Louis, laden with bales of buffalo and beaver peltry, every + pound of which would be worth ten dollars at the capital of the fur trade; + and we should restore to our minds the old pictures of savage tribesmen, + decked in fur-trimmed war-shirts and plumed bonnets, armed with lance and + sinewed bow and bull-neck shield, not forgetting whence they got their + horses and how they got their food. + </p> + <p> + The great early mid-continental highway, known as the Oregon Trail or the + Overland Trail, was by way of the Missouri up the Platte Valley, thence + across the mountains. We know more of this route because it was not + discontinued, but came steadily more and more into use, for one reason + after another. The fur traders used it, the Forty-Niners used it, the + cattlemen used it in part, the railroads used it; and, lastly, the + settlers and farmers used it most of all. + </p> + <p> + In physical features the Platte River route was similar to that of the + Arkansas Valley. Each at its eastern extremity, for a few days' travel, + passed over the rolling grass-covered and flower-besprinkled prairies ere + it broke into the high and dry lands of the Plains, with their green or + grey or brown covering of practically flowerless short grasses. But + between the two trails of the Arkansas and the Platte there existed + certain wide differences. At the middle of the nineteenth century the two + trails were quite distinct in personnel, if that word may be used. The + Santa Fe Trail showed Spanish influences; that of the Platte Valley + remained far more nearly American. + </p> + <p> + Thus far the frontier had always been altering the man who came to it; + and, indirectly, always altering those who dwelt back of the frontier, + nearer to the Appalachians or the Atlantic. A new people now was in + process of formation—a people born of a new environment. America and + the American were conceiving. There was soon to be born, soon swiftly to + grow, a new and lasting type of man. Man changes an environment only by + bringing into it new or better transportation. Environment changes man. + Here in the midcontinent, at the mid-century, the frontier and the ways of + the frontier were writing their imprint on the human product of our land. + </p> + <p> + The first great caravans of the Platte Valley, when the wagon-trains went + out hundreds strong, were not the same as the scattering cavalcade of the + fur hunters, not the same as the ox-trains and mule-trains of the Santa Fe + traffic. The men who wore deepest the wheel marks of the Oregon Trail were + neither trading nor trapping men, but homebuilding men—the first + real emigrants to go West with the intent of making homes beyond the + Rockies. + </p> + <p> + The Oregon Trail had been laid out by the explorers of the fur trade. + Zealous missionaries had made their way over the trail in the thirties. + The Argonauts of '49 passed over it and left it only after crossing the + Rockies. But, before gold in California was dreamed of, there had come + back to the States reports of lands rich in resources other than gold, + lying in the far Northwest, beyond the great mountain ranges and, before + the Forty-Niners were heard of, farmers, home-builders, emigrants, men with + their families, men with their household goods, were steadily passing out + for the far-off and unknown country of Oregon. + </p> + <p> + The Oregon Trail was the pathway for Fremont in 1842, perhaps the most + overvalued explorer of all the West; albeit this comment may to some seem + harsh. Kit Carson and Bill Williams led Fremont across the Rockies almost + by the hand. Carson and Williams themselves had been taken across by the + Indian tribes. But Fremont could write; and the story which he set down of + his first expedition inflamed the zeal of all. Men began to head out for + that far-away country beyond the Rockies. Not a few scattered bands, but + very many, passed up the valley of the Platte. There began a tremendous + trek of thousands of men who wanted homes somewhere out beyond the + frontier. And that was more than ten years before the Civil War. The cow + trade was not dreamed of; the coming cow country was overleaped and + ignored. + </p> + <p> + Our national horizon extended immeasurably along that dusty way. In the + use of the Oregon Trail we first began to be great. The chief figure of + the American West, the figure of the ages, is not the long-haired, + fringed-legging man riding a raw-boned pony, but the gaunt and sad-faced + woman sitting on the front seat of the wagon, following her lord where he + might lead, her face hidden in the same ragged sunbonnet which had crossed + the Appalachians and the Missouri long before. That was America, my + brethren! There was the seed of America's wealth. There was the great + romance of all America—the woman in the sunbonnet; and not, after + all, the hero with the rifle across his saddle horn. Who has written her + story? Who has painted her picture? + </p> + <p> + They were large days, those of the great Oregon Trail, not always + pleasingly dramatic, but oftentimes tragic and terrible. We speak of the + Oregon Trail, but it means little to us today; nor will any mere + generalities ever make it mean much to us. But what did it mean to the men + and women of that day? What and who were those men and women? What did it + mean to take the Overland Trail in the great adventure of abandoning + forever the known and the safe and setting out for Oregon or California at + a time when everything in the far West was new and unknown? How did those + good folk travel? Why and whither did they travel? + </p> + <p> + There is a book done by C. F. McGlashan, a resident of Truckee, + California, known as "The History of the Donner Party," holding a great + deal of actual history. McGlashan, living close to Donner Lake, wrote in + 1879, describing scenes with which he was perfectly familiar, and + recounting facts which he had from direct association with participants in + the ill-fated Donner Party. He chronicles events which happened in 1846—a + date before the discovery of gold in California. The Donner Party was one + of the typical American caravans of homeseekers who started for the + Pacific Slope with no other purpose than that of founding homes there, and + with no expectation of sudden wealth to be gained in the mines. I desire + therefore to quote largely from the pages of this book, believing that, in + this fashion, we shall come upon history of a fundamental sort, which + shall make us acquainted with the men and women of that day, with the + purposes and the ambitions which animated them, and with the hardships + which they encountered. + </p> + <p> + "The States along the Mississippi were but sparsely settled in 1846, yet + the fame of the fruitfulness, the healthfulness, and the almost tropical + beauty of the land bordering the Pacific, tempted the members of the + Donner Party to leave their homes. These homes were situated in Illinois, + Iowa, Tennessee, Missouri, and Ohio. Families from each of these States + joined the train and participated in its terrible fate; yet the party + proper was organized in Sangamon County, Illinois, by George and Jacob + Donner and James F. Reed. Early in April, 1846, the party set out from + Springfield, Illinois, and by the first week in May reached Independence, + Missouri. Here the party was increased by additional members, and the + train comprised about one hundred persons.... +</p> + <p> +In the party were aged + fathers with their trusting families about them, mothers whose very lives + were wrapped up in their children, men in the prime and vigor of manhood, + maidens in all the sweetness and freshness of budding womanhood, children + full of glee and mirthfulness, and babes nestling on maternal breasts. + Lovers there were, to whom the journey was tinged with rainbow hues of joy + and happiness, and strong, manly hearts whose constant support and + encouragement was the memory of dear ones left behind in homeland. + </p> + <p> + "The wonderment which all experience in viewing the scenery along the line + of the old emigrant road was peculiarly vivid to these people. Few + descriptions had been given of the route, and all was novel and + unexpected. In later years the road was broadly and deeply marked, and + good camping grounds were distinctly indicated. The bleaching bones of + cattle that had perished, or the broken fragments of wagons or castaway + articles, were thickly strewn on either side of the highway. But in 1846 + the way was through almost trackless valleys waving with grass, along + rivers where few paths were visible, save those made by the feet of + buffalo and antelope, and over mountains and plains where little more than + the westward course of the sun guided the travelers. Trading-posts were + stationed at only a few widely distant points, and rarely did the party + meet with any human beings, save wandering bands of Indians. Yet these + first days are spoken of by all of the survivors as being crowned with + peaceful enjoyment and pleasant anticipations. There were beautiful + flowers by the roadside, an abundance of game in the meadows and + mountains, and at night there were singing, dancing, and innocent plays. + Several musical instruments, and many excellent voices, were in the party, + and the kindliest feeling and goodfellowship prevailed among the members. + </p> + <p> + "The formation of the company known as the Donner Party was purely + accidental. The union of so many emigrants into one train was not + occasioned by any preconcerted arrangement. Many composing the Donner + Party were not aware, at the outset, that such a tide of emigration was + sweeping to California. In many instances small parties would hear of the + mammoth train just ahead of them or just behind them, and by hastening + their pace, or halting for a few days, joined themselves to the party. + Many were with the train during a portion of the journey, but from some + cause or other became parted from the Donner company before reaching + Donner Lake. Soon after the train left Independence it contained between + two and three hundred wagons, and when in motion was two miles in length. + The members of the party proper numbered ninety." + </p> + <p> + This caravan, like many others of the great assemblage westbound at that + time, had great extremes in personnel. Some were out for mere adventure; + some were single men looking for a location. Most of them were fathers of + families, among them several persons of considerable means and of good + standing in the community which they were leaving. While we may suppose + that most of them were folk of no extraordinary sort, certainly some were + persons of education and intelligence. Among these was the wife of George + Donner—Tamsen Donner, a woman of education, a musician, a linguist, + a botanist, and of the most sublime heroism. + </p> + <p> + Tamsen Donner sent back now and then along the route some story of the + daily doings of the caravan; and such letters as these are of the utmost + interest to any who desire precise information of that time. It would seem + that the emigrants themselves for a great part of their route met with no + great adventures, nor indeed, appeared to be undertaking any unusual + affair. They followed a route up the Platte Valley already long known to + those of the eastern settlements. + </p> + <p> + "Near the Junction of the North and South Platte, June 16, 1846. + </p> + <p> + "My Old Friend: We are now on the Platte, two hundred miles from Fort + Laramie. Our journey so far has been pleasant, the roads have been good, + and food plentiful. The water for part of the way has been indifferent, + but at no time have our cattle suffered for it. Wood is now very scarce, + but 'buffalo chips' are excellent; they kindle quickly and retain heat + surprisingly. We had this morning buffalo steaks broiled upon them that + had the same flavor they would have had upon hickory coals. + </p> + <p> + "We feel no fear of Indians; our cattle graze quietly around our + encampment unmolested. Two or three men will go hunting twenty miles from + camp; and last night two of our men lay out in the wilderness rather than + ride their horses after a hard chase. + </p> + <p> + "Indeed, if I do not experience something far worse than I have yet done, + I shall say the trouble is all in getting started. Our wagons have not + needed much repair, and I can not yet tell in what respects they could be + improved. Certain it is, they can not be too strong. Our preparations for + the journey might have been in some respects bettered. + </p> + <p> + "Bread has been the principal article of food in our camp. We laid in one + hundred and fifty pounds of flour and seventy-five pounds of meat for each + individual, and I fear bread will be scarce. Meat is abundant. Rice and + beans are good articles on the road; cornmeal too, is acceptable. Linsey + dresses are the most suitable for children. Indeed, if I had one, it would + be acceptable. There is so cool a breeze at all times on the Plains that + the sun does not feel so hot as one would suppose. + </p> + <p> + "We are now four hundred and fifty miles from Independence. Our route at + first was rough, and through a timbered country, which appeared to be + fertile. After striking the prairie, we found a firstrate road, and the + only difficulty we have had, has been in crossing the creeks. In that, + however, there has been no danger. + </p> + <p> + "I never could have believed we could have traveled so far with so little + difficulty. The prairie between the Blue and the Platte Rivers is + beautiful beyond description. Never have I seen so varied a country, so + suitable for cultivation. Everything is new and pleasing; the Indians + frequently come to see us, and the chiefs of a tribe breakfasted at our + tent this morning. All are so friendly that I can not help feeling + sympathy and friendship for them. But on one sheet what can I say? + </p> + <p> + "Since we have been on the Platte, we have had the river on one side and + the ever varying mounds on the other, and have traveled through the bottom + lands from one to two miles wide, with little or no timber. The soil is + sandy, and last year, on account of the dry season, the emigrants found + grass here scarce. Our cattle are in good order, and when proper care has + been taken, none have been lost. Our milch cows have been of great + service, indeed. They have been of more advantage than our meat. We have + plenty of butter and milk. + </p> + <p> + "We are commanded by Captain Russell, an amiable man. George Donner is + himself yet. He crows in the morning and shouts out, 'Chain up, boys—chain + up,' with as much authority as though he was 'something in particular.' + John Denton is still with us. We find him useful in the camp. Hiram Miller + and Noah James are in good health and doing well. We have of the best + people in our company, and some, too, that are not so good. + </p> + <p> + "Buffalo show themselves frequently. We have found the wild tulip, the + primrose, the lupine, the eardrop, the larkspur, and creeping hollyhock, + and a beautiful flower resembling the bloom of the beech tree, but in + bunches as large as a small sugarloaf, and of every variety of shade, to + red and green. + </p> + <p> + "I botanize, and read some, but cook 'heaps' more. There are four hundred + and twenty wagons, as far as we have heard, on the road between here and + Oregon and California. + </p> + <p> + "Give our love to all inquiring friends. God bless them. + </p> + <p> + "Yours truly, Mrs. George Donner." + </p> + <p> + By the Fourth of July the Donner Party had reached Fort Laramie. They + pushed on west over the old trail up the Sweetwater River and across the + South Pass, the easiest of all the mountain passes known to the early + travelers. Without much adventure they reached Fort Bridger, then only a + trading-post. Here occurred the fatal mistake of the Donner Party. + </p> + <p> + Some one at the fort strongly advised them to take a new route, a cut-off + said to shorten the distance by about three hundred miles. This cut-off + passed along the south shore of Great Salt Lake and caught up the old + California Trail from Fort Hall—then well established and well + known-along the Humboldt River. The great Donner caravan delayed for some + days at Fort Bridger, hesitating over the decision of which route to + follow. The party divided. All those who took the old road north of Salt + Lake by way of Fort Hall reached California in complete safety. Of the + original Donner Party there remained eighty-seven persons. All of these + took the cut-off, being eager to save time in their travel. They reached + Salt Lake after unspeakable difficulties. Farther west, in the deserts of + Nevada, they lost many of their cattle. + </p> + <p> + Now began among the party dissensions and grumblings. The story is a long + one. It reached its tragic denouement just below the summit of the + Sierras, on the shores of Donner Lake. The words of McGlashan may now best + serve our purpose. + </p> + <p> + "Generally, the ascent of the Sierra brought joy and gladness to weary + overland emigrants. To the Donner Party it brought terror and dismay. The + company had hardly obtained a glimpse of the mountains, ere the winter + storm clouds began to assemble their hosts around the loftier crests. + Every day the weather appeared more ominous and threatening. The delay at + the Truckee Meadows had been brief, but every day ultimately cost a dozen + lives. On the twenty-third of October, they became thoroughly alarmed at + the angry heralds of the gathering storm, and with all haste resumed the + journey. It was too late! At Prosser Creek, three miles below Truckee, + they found themselves encompassed with six inches of snow. On the summits, + the snow was from two to five feet in depth. This was October 28, 1846. + Almost a month earlier than usual, the Sierra had donned its mantle of ice + and snow. The party were prisoners! + </p> + <p> + "All was consternation. The wildest confusion prevailed. In their + eagerness, many went far in advance of the main train. There was little + concert of action or harmony of plan. All did not arrive at Donner Lake + the same day. Some wagons and families did not reach the lake until the + thirty-first day of October, some never went farther than Prosser Creek, + while others, on the evening of the twenty-ninth, struggled through the + snow, and reached the foot of the precipitous cliffs between the summit + and the upper end of the lake. Here, baffled, wearied, disheartened, they + turned back to the foot of the lake." + </p> + <p> + These emigrants did not lack in health, strength, or resolution, but here + they were in surroundings absolutely new to them. A sort of panic seized + them now. They scattered; their organization disintegrated. All thought of + conjoint action, of a social compact, a community of interests, seems to + have left them. It was a history of every man for himself, or at least + every family for itself. All track of the road was now lost under the + snow. At the last pitch up to the summit of the Sierras precipitous cliffs + abounded. No one knew the way. And now the snows came once again. + </p> + <p> + "The emigrants suffered a thousand deaths. The pitiless snow came down in + large, steady masses. All understood that the storm meant death. One of + the Indians silently wrapped his blanket about him and in deepest + dejection seated himself beside a tall pine. In this position he passed + the entire night, only moving occasionally to keep from being covered with + snow. Mrs. Reed spread down a shawl, placed her four children—Virginia, + Patty, James, and Thomas—thereon, and putting another shawl over + them, sat by the side of her babies during all the long hours of darkness. + Every little while she was compelled to lift the upper shawl and shake off + the rapidly accumulating snow. + </p> + <p> + "With slight interruptions, the storm continued several days. The mules + and oxen that had always hovered about camp were blinded and bewildered by + the storm, and straying away were literally buried alive in the drifts. + What pen can describe the horror of the position in which the emigrants + found themselves? It was impossible to move through the deep, soft snow + without the greatest effort. The mules were gone, and were never found. + Most of the cattle had perished, and were wholly hidden from sight. The + few oxen which were found were slaughtered for beef." + </p> + <p> + The travelers knew that the supplies they had could not last long. On the + 12th of November a relief party essayed to go forward, but after + struggling a short distance toward the summit, came back wearied and + broken-hearted, unable to make way through the deep, soft snow. Then some + one—said to have been F. W. Graves of Vermont—bethought + himself of making snowshoes out of the oxbows and the hides of the + slaughtered oxen. With these they did better. + </p> + <p> + Volunteers were called for yet another party to cross the mountains into + California. Fifteen persons volunteered. Not all of them were men—some + were mothers, and one was a young woman. Their mental condition was little + short of desperation. Only, in the midst of their intense hardships it + seemed to all, somewhere to the westward was California, and that there + alone lay any hope. The party traveled four miles the first day; and their + camp fires were visible below the summit. The next day they traveled six + miles and crossed the divide. + </p> + <p> + They were starving, cold, worn out, their feet frozen to bursting, their + blood chilled. At times they were caught in some of the furious storms of + the Sierras. They did not know their way. On the 27th of December certain + of the party resolved themselves to that last recourse which alone might + mean life. Surrounded by horrors as they were, it seemed they could endure + the thought of yet an additional horror.... There were the dead, the + victims who already had perished!... + </p> + <p> + Seven of the fifteen got through to the Sacramento Valley, among these the + young girl, Mary Graves, described as "a very beautiful girl, of tall and + slender build, and, exceptionally graceful character." The story brought + out by these survivors of the first party to cross the Sierras from the + starving camp set all California aflame. There were no less than three + relief expeditions formed, which at varying dates crossed the mountains to + the east. Some men crossed the snow belt five times in all. The rescuers + were often in as much danger as the victims they sought to save. + </p> + <p> + And they could not save them. Back there in their tents and hovels around + Donner Lake starvation was doing its work steadily. There is contemporary + history also covering the details of this. Tamsen Donner, heroine that she + was, kept a diary which would have been valuable for us, but this was lost + along with her paintings and her botanical collections. The best preserved + diary is that of Patrick Breen, done in simple and matter-of-fact fashion + throughout most of the starving winter. Thus: + </p> + <p> + "Dec. 17. Pleasant; William Murphy returned from the mountain party last + evening; Baylis Williams died night before last; Milton and Noah started + for Donner's eight days ago; not returned yet; think they are lost in the + snow. + </p> + <p> + "Dec. 21. Milton got back last night from Donner's camp. Sad news; Jacob + Donner, Samuel Shoemaker, Rhineheart, and Smith are dead; the rest of them + in a low situation; snowed all night, with a strong southwest wind. + </p> + <p> + "Dec. 23. Clear to-day; Milton took some of his meat away; all well at + their camp. Began this day to read the 'Thirty Days' Prayers'; Almighty + God, grant the requests of unworthy sinners! + </p> + <p> + "Jan. 13. Snowing fast; snow higher than the shanty; it must be thirteen + feet deep. Can not get wood this morning; it is a dreadful sight for us to + look upon. + </p> + <p> + "Jan. 27. Commenced snowing yesterday; still continues today. Lewis + Keseberg, Jr., died three days ago; food growing scarce; don't have fire + enough to cook our hides. + </p> + <p> + "Jan. 31. The sun does not shine out brilliant this morning; froze hard + last night; wind northwest. Landrum Murphy died last night about ten + o'clock; Mrs. Reed went to Graves's this morning to look after goods. + </p> + <p> + "Feb. 4. Snowed hard until twelve o'clock last night; many uneasy for fear + we shall all perish with hunger; we have but little meat left, and only + three hides; Mrs. Reed has nothing but one hide, and that is on Graves's + house; Milton lives there, and likely will keep that. Eddy's child died + last night. + </p> + <p> + "Feb. 7. Ceased to snow at last; today it is quite pleasant. McCutchen's + child died on the second of this month. + </p> + <p> + "[This child died and was buried in the Graves's cabin. Mr. W. C. Graves + helped dig the grave near one side of the cabin, and laid the little one + to rest. One of the most heart-rending features of this Donner tragedy is + the number of infants that perished. Mrs. Breen, Mrs. Pike, Mrs. Foster, + Mrs. McCutchen, Mrs. Eddy, and Mrs. Graves each had nursing babes when the + fatal camp was pitched at Donner Lake.] + </p> + <p> + "Feb. 8. Fine, clear morning. Spitzer died last night, and we will bury + him in the snow; Mrs. Eddy died on the night of the seventh. + </p> + <p> + "Feb. 9. Mrs. Pike's child all but dead; Milton is at Murphy's, not able + to get out of bed; Mrs. Eddy and child buried today; wind southeast. + </p> + <p> + "Feb. 10. Beautiful morning; thawing in the sun; Milton Elliott died last + night at Murphy's cabin, and Mrs. Reed went there this morning to see + about his effects. John Denton trying to borrow meat for Graves; had none + to give; they had nothing but hides; all are entirely out of meat, but a + little we have; our hides are nearly all eat up, but with God's help + spring will soon smile upon us." + </p> + <p> + There was one survivor of the camp at Donner Lake, a man named Lewis + Keseberg, of German descent. That he was guilty of repeated cannibalism + cannot be doubted. It was in his cabin that, after losing all her loved + ones, the heroic Tamsen Donner met her end. Many thought he killed her for + the one horrid purpose. * + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + * Many years later (1879) Keseberg declared under oath to C. F. +McGlashan that he did not take her life. See "History of the Donner" +Party, pp. 212, 213. +</pre> + <p> + Such then is the story of one of the great emigrant parties who started + West on a hazard of new fortunes in the early days of the Oregon Trail. + Happily there has been no parallel to the misadventures of this ill-fated + caravan. It is difficult—without reading these bald and awful + details—to realize the vast difference between that day and this. + Today we may by the gentle stages of a pleasant railway journey arrive at + Donner Lake. Little trace remains, nor does any kindly soul wish for more + definite traces, of those awful scenes. Only a cross here and there with a + legend, faint and becoming fainter every year, may be seen, marking the + more prominent spots of the historic starving camp. + </p> + <p> + Up on the high mountain side, for the most part hid in the forest, lie the + snowsheds and tunnels of the railway, now encountering its stiffest climb + up the steep slopes to the summit of the Sierras. The author visited this + spot of melancholy history in company with the vice-president of the great + railway line which here swings up so steadily and easily over the Sierras. + Bit by bit we checked out as best we might the fateful spots mentioned in + the story of the Donner Party. A splendid motor highway runs by the + lakeside now. While we halted our own car there, a motor car drove up from + the westward—following that practical automobile highway which now + exists from the plains of California across the Sierras and east over + precisely that trail where once the weary feet of the oxen dragged the + wagons of the early emigrants. It was a small car of no expensive type. It + was loaded down with camping equipment until the wheels scarcely could be + seen. It carried five human occupants—an Iowa farmer and his family. + They had been out to California for a season. Casually they had left Los + Angeles, had traveled north up the valleys of California, east across the + summit of the Sierras, and were here now bound for Iowa over the old + emigrant trail! + </p> + <p> + We hailed this new traveler on the old trail. I do not know whether or not + he had any idea of the early days of that great highway; I suspect that he + could tell only of its present motoring possibilities. But his wheels were + passing over the marks left more than half a century ago by the cracked + felloes of the emigrant wagons going west in search of homes. If we seek + history, let us ponder that chance pause of the eastbound family, + traveling by motor for pleasure, here by the side of the graves of the + travelers of another day, itself so briefly gone. What an epoch was + spanned in the passing of that frontier! + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter VII. The Indian Wars + </h2> + <p> + It might well be urged against the method employed in these pages that, + although we undertook to speak of the last American frontier, all that we + really thus far have done has been to describe a series of frontiers from + the Missouri westward. In part this is true. But it was precisely in this + large, loose, and irregular fashion that we actually arrived at our last + frontier. Certainly our westbound civilization never advanced by any + steady or regular process. It would be a singularly illuminating map—and + one which I wish we might show—which would depict in different + colors the great occupied areas of the West, with the earliest dates of + their final and permanent occupation. Such a map as this would show us + that the last frontier of America was overleaped and left behind not once + but a score of times. + </p> + <p> + The land between the Missouri and the Rockies, along the Great Plains and + the high foothills, was crossed over and forgotten by the men who were + forging on into farther countries in search of lands where fortune was + swift and easy. California, Oregon, all the early farming and timbering + lands of the distant Northwest—these lay far beyond the Plains; and + as we have noted, they were sought for, even before gold was dreamed of + upon the Pacific Slope. + </p> + <p> + So here, somewhere between the Missouri and the Rockies, lay our last + frontier, wavering, receding, advancing, gaining and losing, changing a + little more every decade—and at last so rapidly changed as to be + outworn and abolished in one swift decade all its own. + </p> + <p> + This unsettled land so long held in small repute by the early Americans, + was, as we have pointed out, the buffalo-range and the country of the + Horse Indians—the Plains tribes who lived upon the buffalo. For a + long time it was this Indian population which held back the white + settlements of Kansas, Nebraska, the Dakotas, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado. + But as men began to work farther and farther westward in search of homes + in Oregon, or in quest of gold in California or Idaho or Montana, the + Indian question came to be a serious one. + </p> + <p> + To the Army, soon after the Civil War, fell the task of exterminating, or + at least evicting, the savage tribes over all this unvalued and unknown + Middle West. This was a process not altogether simple. For a considerable + time the Indians themselves were able to offer very effective resistance + to the enterprise. They were accustomed to living upon that country, and + did not need to bring in their own supplies; hence the Army fought them at + a certain disadvantage. In sooth, the Army had to learn to become half + Indian before it could fight the Indians on anything like even terms. We + seem not so much to have coveted the lands in the first Indian-fighting + days; we fought rather for the trails than for the soil. The Indians + themselves had lived there all their lives, had conquered their + environment, and were happy in it. They made a bitter fight; nor are they + to be blamed for doing so. + </p> + <p> + The greatest of our Indian wars have taken place since our own Civil War; + and perhaps the most notable of all the battles are those which were + fought on the old cow range—in the land of our last frontier. We do + not lack abundant records of this time of our history. Soon after the + Civil War the railroads began edging out into the plains. They brought, + besides many new settlers, an abundance of chroniclers and historians and + writers of hectic fiction or supposed fact. A multitude of books came out + at this time of our history, most of which were accepted as truth. That + was the time when we set up as Wild West heroes rough skin-clad hunters and + so-called scouts, each of whom was allowed to tell his own story and to + have it accepted at par. As a matter of fact, at about the time the Army + had succeeded in subduing the last of the Indian tribes on the + buffalo-range, the most of our Wild West history, at least so far as + concerned the boldest adventure, was a thing of the past. It was easy to + write of a past which every one now was too new, too ignorant, or too busy + critically to remember. + </p> + <p> + Even as early as 1866, Colonel Marcy, an experienced army officer and + Indian-fighter, took the attitude of writing about a vanishing phase of + American life. In his "Army Life on the Border," he says: + </p> + <p> + "I have been persuaded by many friends that the contents of the book which + is herewith presented to the public are not without value as records of a + fast-vanishing age, and as truthful sketches of men of various races whose + memory will shortly depend only on romance, unless some one who knew them + shall undertake to leave outlines of their peculiar characteristics.... I + am persuaded that excuse may be found in the simple fact that all these + peoples of my description—men, conditions of life, races of + aboriginal inhabitants and adventurous hunters and pioneers—are + passing away. A few years more and the prairie will be transformed into + farms. The mountain ravines will be the abodes of busy manufacturers, and + the gigantic power of American civilization will have taken possession of + the land from the great river of the West to the very shores of the + Pacific.... The world is fast filling up. I trust I am not in error when I + venture to place some value, however small, on everything which goes to + form the truthful history of a condition of men incident to the advances + of civilization over the continent—a condition which forms peculiar + types of character, breeds remarkable developments of human nature—a + condition also which can hardly again exist on this or any other + continent, and which has, therefore, a special value in the sum of human + history." + </p> + <p> + Such words as the foregoing bespeak a large and dignified point of view. + No one who follows Marcy's pages can close them with anything but respect + and admiration. It is in books such as this, then, that we may find + something about the last stages of the clearing of the frontier. + </p> + <p> + Even in Marcy's times the question of our Government's Indian policy was a + mooted one. He himself as an Army officer looked at the matter + philosophically, but his estimate of conditions was exact. Long ago as he + wrote, his conclusions were such as might have been given forty years + later. + </p> + <p> + "The limits of their accustomed range are rapidly contracting, and their + means of subsistence undergoing a corresponding diminution. The white man + is advancing with rapid strides upon all sides of them, and they are + forced to give way to his encroachments. The time is not far distant when + the buffalo will become extinct, and they will then be compelled to adopt + some other mode of life than the chase for a subsistence.... No man will + quietly submit to starvation when food is within his reach, and if he + cannot obtain it honestly he will steal it or take it by force. If, + therefore, we do not induce them to engage in agricultural avocations we + shall in a few years have before us the alternative of exterminating them + or fighting them perpetually. That they are destined ultimately to + extinction does not in my mind admit of a doubt. For the reasons above + mentioned it may at first be necessary for our government to assert its + authority over them by a prompt and vigorous exercise of the military + arm.... The tendency of the policy I have indicated will be to assemble + these people in communities where they will be more readily controlled; + and I predict from it the most gratifying results." +</p> + <p> +Another well-informed + army officer, Colonel Richard Dodge, himself a hunter, a trailer, and a + rider able to compete with the savages in their own fields, penetrated to + the heart of the Indian problem when he wrote: + </p> + <p> + "The conception of Indian character is almost impossible to a man who has + passed the greater portion of his life surrounded by the influences of a + cultivated, refined, and moral society.... The truth is simply too + shocking, and the revolted mind takes refuge in disbelief as the less + painful horn of the dilemma. As a first step toward an understanding of + his character we must get at his standpoint of morality. As a child he is + not brought up.... From the dawn of intelligence his own will is his law. + There is no right and no wrong to him.... No dread of punishment restrains + him from any act that boyish fun or fury may prompt. No lessons + inculcating the beauty and sure reward of goodness or the hideousness and + certain punishment of vice are ever wasted on him. The men by whom he is + surrounded, and to whom he looks as models for his future life, are great + and renowned just in proportion to their ferocity, to the scalps they have + taken, or the thefts they have committed. His earliest boyish memory is + probably a dance of rejoicing over the scalps of strangers, all of whom he + is taught to regard as enemies. The lessons of his mother awaken only a + desire to take his place as soon as possible in fight and foray. The + instruction of his father is only such as is calculated to fit him best to + act a prominent part in the chase, in theft, and in murder.... Virtue, + morality, generosity, honor, are words not only absolutely without + significance to him, but are not accurately translatable into any Indian + language on the Plains." + </p> + <p> + These are sterner, less kindly, less philosophic words than Marcy's, but + they keenly outline the duty of the Army on the frontier. We made treaties + with the Indians and broke them. In turn men such as these ignorant + savages might well be expected to break their treaties also; and they did. + Unhappily our Indian policy at that time was one of mingled ferocity and + wheedling. The Indians did not understand us any more than we did them. + When we withdrew some of the old frontier posts from the old + hunting-range, the action was construed by the tribesmen as an admission + that we feared them, and they acted upon that idea. In one point of view + they had right with them, for now we were moving out into the last of the + great buffalo country. Their war was one of desperation, whereas ours was + one of conquest, no better and no worse than all the wars of conquest by + which the strong have taken the possessions of the weak. + </p> + <p> + Our Army at the close of the Civil War and at the beginning of the wars + with the Plains tribes was in better condition than it has ever been since + that day. It was made up of the soundest and best-seasoned soldiers that + ever fought under our flag; and at that time it represented a greater + proportion of our fighting strength than it ever has before or since. In + 1860 the Regular Army, not counting the volunteer forces, was 16,000. In + 1870 it was 37,000—one soldier to each one thousand of our + population. + </p> + <p> + Against this force, pioneers of the vaster advancing army of peaceful + settlers now surging West, there was arrayed practically all the + population of fighting tribes such as the Sioux, the two bands of the + Cheyennes, the Piegans, the Assiniboines, the Arapahoes, the Kiowas, the + Comanches, and the Apaches. These were the leaders of many other tribes in + savage campaigns which set the land aflame from the Rio Grande to our + northern line. The Sioux and Cheyennes were more especially the leaders, + and they always did what they could to enlist the aid of the less warlike + tribes such as the Crows, the Snakes, the Bannacks, the Utes—indeed + all of the savage or semi-civilized tribes which had hung on the flanks of + the traffic of the westbound trail. + </p> + <p> + The Sioux, then at the height of their power, were distinguished by many + warlike qualities. They fought hard and were quick to seize upon any signs + of weakness in their enemies. When we, in the course of our Civil War, had + withdrawn some of the upper posts, the Sioux edged in at once and pressed + back the whites quite to the eastern confines of the Plains. When we were + locked in the death grip of internecine war in 1862, they rose in one + savage wave of rebellion of their own and massacred with the most horrible + ferocity not less than six hundred and forty-four whites in Minnesota and + South Dakota. When General Sibley went out among them on his later + punitive campaign he had his hands full for many a long and weary day. + </p> + <p> + Events following the close of the Civil War did not mend matters in the + Indian situation. The railroads had large land grants given to them along + their lines, and they began to offer these lands for sale to settlers. + Soldier scrip entitling the holder to locate on public lands now began to + float about. Some of the engineers, even some of the laborers, upon the + railroads, seeing how really feasible was the settlement of these Plains, + began to edge out and to set up their homes, usually not far from the + railway lines. All this increase in the numbers of the white population + not only infuriated the Indians the more, but gave them the better chance + to inflict damage upon our people. Our Army therefore became very little + more than a vast body of police, and it was always afoot with the purpose + of punishing these offending tribesmen, who knew nothing of the higher + laws of war and who committed atrocities that have never been equalled in + history; unless it be by one of the belligerents of the Great War in + Europe, with whom we are at this writing engaged—once more in the + interest of a sane and human civilization. The last great struggle for the + occupation of the frontier was on. It involved the ownership of the last + of our open lands; and hence may be called the war of our last frontier. + </p> + <p> + The settler who pushed West continued to be the man who shared his time + between his rifle and his plough. The numerous buffalo were butchered with + an endless avidity by the men who now appeared upon the range. As the + great herds regularly migrated southward with each winter's snows, they + were met by the settlers along the lower railway lines and in a brutal + commerce were killed in thousands and in millions. The Indians saw this + sudden and appalling shrinkage of their means of livelihood. It meant + death to them. To their minds, especially when they thought we feared + them, there was but one answer to all this—the whites must all be + killed. + </p> + <p> + Red Cloud, Crazy Horse, Roman Nose, American Horse, Black Kettle—these + were names of great Indian generals who proved their ability to fight. At + times they brought into the open country, which as yet remained unoccupied + by the great pastoral movement from the south, as many as five thousand + mounted warriors in one body, and they were well armed and well supplied + with ammunition. Those were the days when the Indian agents were carrying + on their lists twice as many Indians as actually existed—and + receiving twice as many supplies as really were issued to the tribes. The + curse of politics was ours even at that time, and it cost us then, as now, + unestimated millions of our nation's dearest treasures. As to the + reservations which the Indians were urged to occupy, they left them when + they liked. In the end, when they were beaten, all they were asked to do + was to return to these reservations and be fed. + </p> + <p> + There were fought in the West from 1869 to 1875 more than two hundred + pitched actions between the Army and the Indians. In most cases the white + men were heavily outnumbered. The account which the Army gave of itself on + scores of unremembered minor fields—which meant life or death to all + engaged—would make one of the best pages of our history, could it be + written today. The enlisted men of the frontier Army were riding and + shooting men, able to live as the Indians did and able to beat them at + their own game. They were led by Army officers whose type has never been + improved upon in any later stage of our Army itself, or of any army in the + world. + </p> + <p> + There are certain great battles which may at least receive notice, + although it would be impossible to mention more than a few of the + encounters of the great Indian wars on the buffalo-range at about the time + of the buffalo's disappearance. The Fetterman Massacre in 1866, near Fort + Phil Kearney, a post located at the edge of the Big Horn Mountains, was a + blow which the Army never has forgotten. "In a place of fifty feet square + lay the bodies of Colonel Fetterman, Captain Brown, and sixty-five + enlisted men. Each man was stripped naked and hacked and scalped, the + skulls beaten in with war clubs and the bodies gashed with knives almost + beyond recognition, with other ghastly mutilations that the civilized pen + hesitates to record." + </p> + <p> + This tragedy brought the Indian problem before the country as never + before. The hand of the Western rancher and trader was implacably against + the tribesmen of the plains; the city-dweller of the East, with hazy + notions of the Indian character, was disposed to urge lenient methods upon + those responsible for governmental policy. While the Sioux and Cheyenne + wars dragged on, Congress created, by act of July 20, 1867, a peace + commission of four civilians and three army officers to deal with the + hostile tribes. For more than a year, with scant sympathy from the + military members, this commission endeavored to remove the causes of + friction by amicable conference with the Indian chiefs. The attitude of + the Army is reflected in a letter of General Sherman to his brother. "We + have now selected and provided reservations for all, off the great roads. + All who cling to their old hunting-grounds are hostile and will remain so + till killed off. We will have a sort of predatory war for years—every + now and then be shocked by the indiscriminate murder of travelers and + settlers, but the country is so large, and the advantage of the Indians so + great, that we cannot make a single war and end it. From the nature of + things we must take chances and clean out Indians as we encounter them." + </p> + <p> + Segregation of the Indian tribes upon reservations seemed to the + commission the only solution of the vexing problem. Various treaties were + made and others were projected looking toward the removal of the tribesmen + from the highways of continental travel. The result was misgiving and + increased unrest among the Indians. + </p> + <p> + In midsummer of 1868 forays occurred at many points along the border of + the Indian Territory. General Sheridan, who now commanded the Department + of the Missouri, believed that a general war was imminent. He determined + to teach the southern tribesmen a lesson they would not forget. In the + dead of winter our troops marched against the Cheyennes, then in their + encampments below the Kansas line. The Indians did not believe that white + men could march in weather forty below zero, during which they themselves + sat in their tepees around their fires; but our cavalrymen did march in + such weather, and under conditions such as our cavalry perhaps could not + endure today. Among these troops was the Seventh Cavalry, Custer's + Regiment, formed after the Civil War, and it was led by Lieutenant-Colonel + George A. Custer himself, that gallant officer whose name was to go into + further and more melancholy history of the Plains. + </p> + <p> + Custer marched until he got in touch with the trails of the Cheyennes, + whom he knew to belong to Black Kettle's band. He did not at the time know + that below them, in the same valley of the Washita, were also the winter + encampments of the Kiowas, the Comanches, the Arapahoes, and even a few + Apaches. He attacked at dawn of a bleak winter morning, November 27, 1868, + after taking the precaution of surrounding the camp, and killed Black + Kettle, and another chief, Little Rock, and over a hundred of their + warriors. Many women and children also were killed in this attack. The + result was one which sank deep into the Indian mind. They began to respect + the men who could outmarch them and outlive them on the range. Surely, + they thought, these were not the same men who had abandoned Forts Phil + Kearney, C. F. Smith, and Reno. There had been some mistake about this + matter. The Indians began to think it over. The result was a pacifying of + all the country south of the Platte. The lower Indians began to come in + and give themselves up to the reservation life. + </p> + <p> + One of the hardest of pitched battles ever fought with an Indian tribe + occurred in September, 1868, on the Arickaree or South Fork of the + Republican River, where General "Sandy" Forsyth, and his scouts, for nine + days fought over six hundred Cheyennes and Arapahoes. These savages had + been committing atrocities upon the settlers of the Saline, the Solomon, + and the Republican valleys, and were known to have killed some sixty-four + men and women at the time General Sheridan resolved to punish them. + Forsyth had no chance to get a command of troops, but he was allowed to + enlist fifty scouts, all "first-class, hardened frontiersmen," and with + this body of fighting men he carried out the most dramatic battle perhaps + ever waged on the Plains. + </p> + <p> + Forsyth ran into the trail of two or three large Indian villages, but none + the less he followed on until he came to the valley of the South Fork. + Here the Cheyennes under the redoubtable Roman Nose surrounded him on the + 17th of September. The small band of scouts took refuge on a brushy island + some sixty yards from shore, and hastily dug themselves in under fire. + </p> + <p> + They stood at bay outnumbered ten to one, with small prospect of escape, + for the little island offered no protection of itself, and was in + pointblank range from the banks of the river. All their horses soon were + shot down, and the men lay in the rifle pits with no hope of escape. Roman + Nose, enraged at the resistance put up by Forsyth's men, led a band of + some four hundred of his warriors in the most desperate charge that has + been recorded in all our Indian fighting annals. It was rarely that the + Indian would charge at all; but these tribesmen, stripped naked for the + encounter, and led at first by that giant warrior, who came on shouting + his defiance, charged in full view not only once but three times in one + day, and got within a hundred feet of the foot of the island where the + scouts were lying. + </p> + <p> + According to Forsyth's report, the Indians came on in regular ranks like + the cavalry of the white men, more than four hundred strong. They were met + by the fire of repeating carbines and revolvers, and they stood for the + first, second, third, fourth, and fifth fire of repeating weapons, and + still charged in! Roman Nose was killed at last within touch of the rifle + pits against which he was leading his men. The second charge was less + desperate, for the savages lost heart after the loss of their leader. The + third one, delivered towards the evening of that same day, was desultory. + By that time the bed of the shallow stream was well filled with fallen + horses and dead warriors. + </p> + <p> + Forsyth ordered meat cut from the bodies of his dead horses and buried in + the wet sand so that it might keep as long as possible. Lieutenant + Beecher, his chief of scouts, was killed, as also were Surgeon Mooers, and + Scouts Smith, Chalmers, Wilson, Farley, and Day. Seventeen others of the + party were wounded, some severely. Forsyth himself was shot three times, + once in the head. His left leg was broken below the knee, and his right + thigh was ripped up by a rifle ball, which caused him extreme pain. Later + he cut the bullet out of his own leg, and was relieved from some part of + the pain. After his rescue, when his broken leg was set it did not suit + him, and he had the leg broken twice in the hospital and reset until it + knitted properly. + </p> + <p> + Forsyth's men lay under fire under a blazing sun in their holes on the + sandbar for nine days. But the savages never dislodged them, and at last + they made off, their women and children beating the death drums, and the + entire village mourning the unreturning brave. On the second day of the + fighting Forsyth had got out messengers at extreme risk, and at length the + party was rescued by a detachment of the Tenth Cavalry. The Indians later + said that they had in all over six hundred warriors in this fight. Their + losses, though variously estimated, were undoubtedly heavy. + </p> + <p> + It was encounters such as this which gradually were teaching the Indians + that they could not beat the white men, so that after a time they began to + yield to the inevitable. + </p> + <p> + What is known as the Baker Massacre was the turning-point in the + half-century of warfare with the Blackfeet, the savage tribe which had + preyed upon the men of the fur trade in a long-continued series of + robberies and murders. On January 22, 1870, Major E. M. Baker, led by + half-breeds who knew the country, surprised the Piegans in their winter + camp on the Marias River, just below the border. He, like Custer, attacked + at dawn, opening the encounter with a general fire into the tepees. He + killed a hundred and seventy-three of the Piegans, including very many + women and children, as was unhappily the case so often in these surprise + attacks. It was deplorable warfare. But it ended the resistance of the + savage Blackfeet. They have been disposed for peace from that day to this. + </p> + <p> + The terrible revenge which the Sioux and Cheyennes took in the battle + which annihilated Custer and his men on the Little Big Horn in the summer + of 1876; the Homeric running fight made by Chief Joseph of the Nez Perces—a + flight which baffled our best generals and their men for a hundred and ten + days over more than fourteen hundred miles of wilderness—these are + events so well known that it seems needless to do more than to refer to + them. The Nez Perces in turn went down forever when Joseph came out and + surrendered, saying, "From where the sun now stands I fight against the + white man no more forever." His surrender to fate did not lack its + dignity. Indeed, a mournful interest attached to the inevitable destiny of + all these savage leaders, who, no doubt, according to their standards, + were doing what men should do and all that men could do. + </p> + <p> + The main difficulty in administering full punishment to such bands was + that after a defeat they scattered, so that they could not be overtaken in + any detailed fashion. After the Custer fight many of the tribe went north + of the Canadian line and remained there for some time. The writer himself + has seen along the Qu'Appelle River in Saskatchewan some of the wheels + taken out of the watches of Custer's men. The savages broke them up and + used the wheels for jewelry. They even offered the Canadians for trade + boots, hats, and clothing taken from the bodies of Custer's men. + </p> + <p> + The Modoc war against the warriors of Captain Jack in 1873 was waged in + the lava beds of Oregon, and it had the distinction of being one of the + first Indian wars to be well reported in the newspapers. We heard a great + deal of the long and trying campaigns waged by the Army in revenge for the + murder of General Canby in his council tent. We got small glory out of + that war, perhaps, but at last we hanged the ringleader of the murderers; + and the extreme Northwest remained free from that time on. + </p> + <p> + Far in the dry Southwest, where home-building man did not as yet essay a + general occupation of the soil, the blood-thirsty Apache long waged a + warfare which tried the mettle of our Army as perhaps no other tribes ever + have done. The Spaniards had fought these Apaches for nearly three hundred + years, and had not beaten them. They offered three hundred dollars each + for Apache scalps, and took a certain number of them. But they left all + the remaining braves sworn to an eternal enmity. The Apaches became + mountain outlaws, whose blood-mad thirst for revenge never died. No tribe + ever fought more bitterly. Hemmed in and surrounded, with no hope of + escape, in some instances they perished literally to the last man. General + George Crook finished the work of cleaning up the Apache outlaws only by + use of the trailers of their own people who sided with the whites for pay. + Without the Pima scouts he never could have run down the Apaches as he + did. Perhaps these were the hardest of all the Plains Indians to find and + to fight. But in 1872 Crook subdued them and concentrated them in + reservations in Arizona. Ten years later, under Geronimo, a tribe of the + Apaches broke loose and yielded to General Crook only after a prolonged + war. Once again they raided New Mexico and Arizona in 1885-6. This was the + last raid of Geronimo. He was forced by General Miles to surrender and, + together with his chief warriors, was deported to Fort Pickens in Florida. +</p> + <p> + In all these savage pitched battles and bloody skirmishes, the surprises + and murderous assaults all over the old range, there were hundreds of + settlers killed, hundreds also of our army men, including some splendid + officers. In the Custer fight alone, on the Little Big Horn, the Army lost + Custer himself, thirteen commissioned officers, and two hundred and + fifty-six enlisted men killed, with two officers and fifty-one men + wounded; a total of three hundred and twenty-three killed and wounded in + one battle. Custer had in his full column about seven hundred men. The + number of the Indians has been variously estimated. They had perhaps five + thousand men in their villages when they met Custer in this, the most + historic and most ghastly battle of the Plains. It would be bootless to + revive any of the old discussions regarding Custer and his rash courage. + Whether in error or in wisdom, he died, and gallantly. He and his men + helped clear the frontier for those who were to follow, and the task took + its toll. +</p> + <p> +Thus, slowly but steadily, even though handicapped by a + vacillating governmental policy regarding the Indians, we muddled through + these great Indian wars of the frontier, our soldiers doing their work + splendidly and uncomplainingly, such work as no other body of civilized + troops has ever been asked to do or could have done if asked. At the close + of the Civil War we ourselves were a nation of fighting men. We were fit + and we were prepared. The average of our warlike qualities never has been + so high as then. The frontier produced its own pathfinders, its own + saviors, its own fighting men. + </p> + <p> + So now the frontier lay ready, waiting for the man with the plough. The + dawn of that last day was at hand. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter VIII. The Cattle Kings + </h2> + <p> + It is proper now to look back yet again over the scenes with which we + hitherto have had to do. It is after the railways have come to the Plains. + The Indians now are vanishing. The buffalo have not yet gone, but are soon + to pass. + </p> + <p> + Until the closing days of the Civil War the northern range was a wide, + open domain, the greatest ever offered for the use of a people. None + claimed it then in fee; none wanted it in fee. The grasses and the sweet + waters offered accessible and profitable chemistry for all men who had + cows to range. The land laws still were vague and inexact in application, + and each man could construe them much as he liked. The excellent homestead + law of 1862, one of the few really good land laws that have been put on + our national statute books, worked well enough so long as we had good + farming lands for homesteading—lands of which a quarter section + would support a home and a family. This same homestead law was the only + one available for use on the cattle-range. In practice it was violated + thousands of times—in fact, of necessity violated by any cattle man + who wished to acquire sufficient range to run a considerable herd. Our + great timber kings, our great cattle kings, made their fortunes out of + their open contempt for the homestead law, which was designed to give all + the people an even chance for a home and a farm. It made, and lost, + America. + </p> + <p> + Swiftly enough, here and there along all the great waterways of the + northern range, ranchers and their men filed claims on the water fronts. + The dry land thus lay tributary to them. For the most part the open lands + were held practically under squatter right; the first cowman in any valley + usually had his rights respected, at least for a time. These were the days + of the open range. Fences had not come, nor had farms been staked out. + </p> + <p> + From the South now appeared that tremendous and elemental force—most + revolutionary of all the great changes we have noted in the swiftly + changing West—the bringing in of thousands of horned kine along the + northbound trails. The trails were hurrying from the Rio Grande to the + upper plains of Texas and northward, along the north and south line of the + Frontier—that land which now we have been seeking less to define and + to mark precisely than fundamentally to understand. + </p> + <p> + The Indian wars had much to do with the cow trade. The Indians were + crowded upon the reservations, and they had to be fed, and fed on beef. + Corrupt Indian agents made fortunes, and the Beef Ring at Washington, one + of the most despicable lobbies which ever fattened there, now wrote its + brief and unworthy history. In a strange way corrupt politics and corrupt + business affected the phases of the cattle industry as they had affected + our relations with the Indians. More than once a herd of some thousand + beeves driven up from Texas on contract, and arriving late in autumn, was + not accepted on its arrival at the army post—some pet of Washington + perhaps had his own herd to sell! All that could be done then would be to + seek out a "holding range." In this way, more and more, the capacity of + the northern Plains to nourish and improve cattle became established. + </p> + <p> + Naturally, the price of cows began to rise; and naturally, also, the + demand for open range steadily increased. There now began the whole + complex story of leased lands and fenced lands. The frontier still was + offering opportunity for the bold man to reap where he had not sown. Lands + leased to the Indians of the civilized tribes began to cut large figure in + the cow trade—as well as some figure in politics—until at + length the thorny situation was handled by a firm hand at Washington. The + methods of the East were swiftly overrunning those of the West. Politics + and graft and pull, things hitherto unknown, soon wrote their hurrying + story also over all this newly won region from which the rifle-smoke had + scarcely yet cleared away. + </p> + <p> + But every herd which passed north for delivery of one sort or the other + advanced the education of the cowman, whether of the northern or the + southern ranges. Some of the southern men began to start feeding ranges in + the North, retaining their breeding ranges in the South. The demand of the + great upper range for cattle seemed for the time insatiable. + </p> + <p> + To the vision of the railroad builders a tremendous potential freightage + now appeared. The railroad builders began to calculate that one day they + would parallel the northbound cow trail with iron trails of their own and + compete with nature for the carrying of this beef. The whole swift story + of all that development, while the westbound rails were crossing and + criss-crossing the newly won frontier, scarce lasted twenty years. + Presently we began to hear in the East of the Chisholm Trail and of the + Western Trail which lay beyond it, and of many smaller and intermingling + branches. We heard of Ogallalla, in Nebraska, the "Gomorrah of the Range," + the first great upper market-place for distribution of cattle to the + swiftly forming northern ranches. The names of new rivers came upon our + maps; and beyond the first railroads we began to hear of the Yellowstone, + the Powder, the Musselshell, the Tongue, the Big Horn, the Little + Missouri. + </p> + <p> + The wild life, bold and carefree, coming up from the South now in a mighty + surging wave, spread all over that new West which offered to the people of + older lands a strange and fascinating interest. Every one on the range had + money; every one was independent. Once more it seemed that man had been + able to overleap the confining limitations of his life, and to attain + independence, self-indulgence, ease and liberty. A chorus of Homeric, + riotous mirth, as of a land in laughter, rose up all over the great range. + After all, it seemed that we had a new world left, a land not yet used. We + still were young! The cry arose that there was land enough for all out + West. And at first the trains of white-topped wagons rivaled the crowded + coaches westbound on the rails. + </p> + <p> + In consequence there came an entire readjustment of values. This country, + but yesterday barren and worthless, now was covered with gold, deeper than + the gold of California or any of the old placers. New securities and new + values appeared. Banks did not care much for the land as security—it + was practically worthless without the cattle—but they would lend + money on cattle at rates which did not then seem usurious. A new system of + finance came into use. Side by side with the expansion of credits went the + expansion of the cattle business. Literally in hundreds of thousands the + cows came north from the exhaustless ranges of the lower country. + </p> + <p> + It was a wild, strange day. But withal it was the kindliest and most + generous time, alike the most contented and the boldest time, in all the + history of our frontiers. There never was a better life than that of the + cowman who had a good range on the Plains and cattle enough to stock his + range. There never will be found a better man's country in all the world + than that which ran from the Missouri up to the low foothills of the + Rockies. + </p> + <p> + The lower cities took their tribute of the northbound cattle for quite a + time. Wichita, Coffeyville, and other towns of lower Kansas in turn made + bids for prominence as cattle marts. Agents of the Chicago stockyards + would come down along the trails into the Indian Nations to meet the + northbound herds and to try to divert them to this or that market as a + shipping-point. The Kiowas and Comanches, not yet wholly confined to their + reservations, sometimes took tribute, whether in theft or in open + extortion, of the herds laboring upward through the long slow season. + Trail-cutters and herd-combers, licensed or unlicensed hangers-on to the + northbound throngs of cattle, appeared along the lower trails—with + some reason, occasionally; for in a great northbound herd there might be + many cows included under brands other than those of the road brands + registered for the drovers of that particular herd. Cattle thieving became + an industry of certain value, rivaling in some localities the operations + of the bandits of the placer camps. There was great wealth suddenly to be + seen. The weak and the lawless, as well as the strong and the + unscrupulous, set out to reap after their own fashion where they had not + sown. If a grave here or there appeared along the trail or at the edge of + the straggling town, it mattered little. If the gamblers and the + desperadoes of the cow towns such as Newton, Ellsworth, Abilene, Dodge, + furnished a man for breakfast day after day, it mattered little, for + plenty of men remained, as good or better. The life was large and + careless, and bloodshed was but an incident. + </p> + <p> + During the early and unregulated days of the cattle industry, the frontier + insisted on its own creed, its own standards. But all the time, coming out + from the East, were scores and hundreds of men of exacter notions of trade + and business. The enormous waste of the cattle range could not long + endure. The toll taken by the thievery of the men who came to be called + range-rustlers made an element of loss which could not long be sustained + by thinking men. As the Vigilantes regulated things in the mining camps, + so now in slightly different fashion the new property owners on the upper + range established their own ideas, their own sense of proportion as to law + and order. The cattle associations, the banding together of many owners of + vast herds, for mutual protection and mutual gain were a natural and + logical development. Outside of these there was for a time a highly + efficient corps of cattle-range Vigilantes, who shot and hanged some + scores of rustlers. + </p> + <p> + It was a frenzied life while it lasted—this lurid outburst, the last + flare of the frontier. Such towns as Dodge and Ogallalla offered + extraordinary phenomena of unrestraint. But fortunately into the worst of + these capitals of license came the best men of the new regime, and the new + officers of the law, the agents of the Vigilantes, the advance-guard of + civilization now crowding on the heels of the wild men of the West. In + time the lights of the dance-halls and the saloons and the gambling + parlors went out one by one all along the frontier. By 1885 Dodge City, a + famed capital of the cow trade, which will live as long as the history of + that industry is known, resigned its eminence and declared that from where + the sun then stood it would be a cow camp no more! The men of Dodge knew + that another day had dawned. But this was after the homesteaders had + arrived and put up their wire fences, cutting off from the town the + holding grounds of the northbound herds. + </p> + <p> + This innovation of barb-wire fences in the seventies had caused a + tremendous alteration of conditions over all the country. It had enabled + men to fence in their own water-fronts, their own homesteads. Casually, + and at first without any objection filed by any one, they had included in + their fences many hundreds of thousands of acres of range land to which + they had no title whatever. These men—like the large-handed cow + barons of the Indian Nations, who had things much as they willed in a + little unnoted realm all their own—had money and political + influence. And there seemed still range enough for all. If a man wished to + throw a drift fence here or there, what mattered it? + </p> + <p> + Up to this time not much attention had been paid to the Little Fellow, the + man of small capital who registered a brand of his own, and who with a + Maverick * here and there and the natural increase, and perhaps a trifle + of unnatural increase here and there—had proved able to accumulate + with more or less rapidity a herd of his own. Now the cattle associations + passed rules that no foreman should be allowed to have or register a brand + of his own. Not that any foreman could be suspected—not at all!—but + the foreman who insisted on his old right to own a running iron and a + registered brand was politely asked to find his employment somewhere else. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + * In the early days a rancher by the name of Maverick, a Texas +man, had made himself rich simply by riding out on the open range and +branding loose and unmarked occupants of the free lands. Hence the term +"Maverick" was applied to any unbranded animal running loose on +the range. No one cared to interfere with these early activities in +collecting unclaimed cattle. Many a foundation for a great fortune was +laid in precisely that way. It was not until the more canny days in the +North that Mavericks were regarded with jealous eyes. +</pre> + <p> + The large-handed and once generous methods of the old range now began to + narrow themselves. Even if the Little Fellow were able to throw a fence + around his own land, very often he did not have land enough to support his + herd with profit. A certain antipathy now began to arise between the great + cattle owners and the small ones, especially on the upper range, where + some rather bitter wars were fought—the cow kings accusing their + smaller rivals of rustling cows; the small man accusing the larger + operators of having for years done the same thing, and of having grown + rich at it. + </p> + <p> + The cattle associations, thrifty and shifty, sending their brand + inspectors as far east as the stockyards of Kansas City and Chicago, + naturally had the whip hand of the smaller men. They employed detectives + who regularly combed out the country in search of men who had loose ideas + of mine and thine. All the time the cow game was becoming stricter and + harder. Easterners brought on the East's idea of property, of low + interest, sure returns, and good security. In short, there was set on once + more—as there had been in every great movement across the entire + West—the old contest between property rights and human independence + in action. It was now once more the Frontier against the States, and the + States were foredoomed to win. + </p> + <p> + The barb-wire fence, which was at first used extensively by the great + operators, came at last to be the greatest friend of the Little Fellow on + the range. The Little Fellow, who under the provisions of the homestead + act began to push West and to depart farther and farther from the + protecting lines of the railways, could locate land and water for himself + and fence in both. "I've got the law back of me," was what he said; and + what he said was true. Around the old cow camps of the trails, and around + the young settlements which did not aspire to be called cow camps, the + homesteaders fenced in land—so much land that there came to be no + place near any of the shipping-points where a big herd from the South + could be held. Along the southern range artificial barriers to the long + drive began to be raised. It would be hard to say whether fear of Texas + competition or of Texas cattle fever was the more powerful motive in the + minds of ranchers in Colorado and Kansas. But the cattle quarantine laws + of 1885 nearly broke up the long drive of that year. Men began to talk of + fencing off the trails, and keeping the northbound herds within the fences—a + thing obviously impossible. + </p> + <p> + The railroads soon rendered this discussion needless. Their agents went + down to Texas and convinced the shippers that it would be cheaper and + safer to put their cows on cattle trains and ship them directly to the + ranges where they were to be delivered. And in time the rails running + north and south across the Staked Plains into the heart of the lower range + began to carry most of the cattle. So ended the old cattle trails. + </p> + <p> + What date shall we fix for the setting of the sun of that last frontier? + Perhaps the year 1885 is as accurate as any—the time when the cattle + trails practically ceased to bring north their vast tribute. But, in fact, + there is no exact date for the passing of the frontier. Its decline set in + on what day the first lank "nester" from the States outspanned his + sun-burned team as he pulled up beside some sweet water on the rolling + lands, somewhere in the West, and looked about him, and looked again at + the land map held in his hand. + </p> + <p> + "I reckon this is our land, Mother," said he. + </p> + <p> + When he said that, he pronounced the doom of the old frontier. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter IX. The Homesteader + </h2> + <p> + His name was usually Nester or Little Fellow. It was the old story of the + tortoise and the hare. The Little Fellow was from the first destined to + win. His steady advance, now on this flank, now on that, just back of the + vanguard pushing westward, had marked the end of all our earlier + frontiers. The same story now was being written on the frontier of the + Plains. + </p> + <p> + But in the passing of this last frontier the type of the land-seeking man, + the type of the American, began to alter distinctly. The million dead of + our cruel Civil War left a great gap in the American population which + otherwise would have occupied the West and Northwest after the clearing + away of the Indians. For three decades we had been receiving a strong and + valuable immigration from the north of Europe. It was in great part this + continuous immigration which occupied the farming lands of upper Iowa, + Minnesota, and the Dakotas. Thus the population of the Northwest became + largely foreign. Each German or Scandinavian who found himself prospering + in this rich new country was himself an immigration agency. He sent back + word to his friends and relatives in the Old World and these came to swell + the steadily thickening population of the New. + </p> + <p> + We have seen that the enterprising cattlemen had not been slow to reach + out for such resources as they might. Perhaps at one time between 1885 and + 1890 there were over ten million acres of land illegally fenced in on the + upper range by large cattle companies. This had been done without any + color of law whatever; a man simply threw out his fences as far as he + liked, and took in range enough to pasture all the cattle that he owned. + His only pretext was "I saw it first." For the Nester who wanted a way + through these fences out into the open public lands, he cherished a bitter + resentment. And yet the Nester must in time win through, must eventually + find the little piece of land which he was seeking. + </p> + <p> + The government at Washington was finally obliged to take action. In the + summer of 1885, acting under authorization of Congress, President + Cleveland ordered the removal of all illegal enclosures and forbade any + person or association to prevent the peaceful occupation of the public + land by homesteaders. The President had already cancelled the leases by + which a great cattle company had occupied grazing lands in the Indian + Territory. Yet, with even-handed justice he kept the land boomers also out + of these coveted lands, until the Dawes Act of 1887 allotted the tribal + lands to the Indians in severalty and threw open the remainder to the + impatient homeseekers. Waiting thousands were ready at the Kansas line, + eager for the starting gun which was to let loose a mad stampede of crazed + human beings. + </p> + <p> + It always was contended by the cowman that these settlers coming in on the + semi-arid range could not make a living there, that all they could do was + legally to starve to death some good woman. True, many of them could not + last out in the bitter combined fight with nature and the grasping + conditions of commerce and transportation of that time. The western + Canadian farmer of today is a cherished, almost a petted being. But no one + ever showed any mercy to the American farmer who moved out West. + </p> + <p> + As always has been the case, a certain number of wagons might be seen + passing back East, as well as the somewhat larger number steadily moving + westward. There were lean years and dry years, hot years, yellow years + here and there upon the range. The phrase written on one disheartened + farmer's wagon top, "Going back to my wife's folks," became historic. + </p> + <p> + The railways were finding profit in carrying human beings out to the + cow-range just as once they had in transporting cattle. Indeed, it did not + take the wiser railroad men long to see that they could afford to set down + a farmer, at almost no cost for transportation, in any part of the new + West. He would after that be dependent upon the railroad in every way. The + railroads deliberately devised the great land boom of 1886, which was more + especially virulent in the State of Kansas. Many of the roads had lands of + their own for sale, but what they wanted most was the traffic of the + settlers. They knew the profit to be derived from the industry of a dense + population raising products which must be shipped, and requiring imports + which also must be shipped. One railroad even offered choice + breeding-stock free on request. The same road, and others also, preached + steadily the doctrine of diversified farming. In short, the railroads, in + their own interests, did all they could to make prosperous the farms or + ranches of the West. The usual Western homestead now was part ranch and + part farm, although the term "ranch" continued for many years to cover all + the meanings of the farm of whatever sort. + </p> + <p> + There appeared now in the new country yet another figure of the Western + civilization, the land-boomer, with his irresponsible and unregulated + statements in regard to the values of these Western lands. These men were + not always desirable citizens, although of course no industry was more + solid or more valuable than that of legitimate handling of the desirable + lands. "Public spirit" became a phrase now well known in any one of scores + of new towns springing up on the old cow-range, each of which laid claims + to be the future metropolis of the world. In any one of these towns the + main industry was that of selling lands or "real estate." During the + Kansas boom of 1886 the land-boomers had their desks in the lobbies of + banks, the windows of hardware stores—any place and every place + offering room for a desk and chair. + </p> + <p> + Now also flourished apace the industry of mortgage loans. Eastern money + began to flood the western Plains, attracted by the high rates of + interest. In 1886 the customary banking interest in western Kansas was two + per cent a month. It is easy to see that very soon such a state of affairs + as this must collapse. The industry of selling town lots far out in the + cornfields, and of buying unimproved subdivision property with borrowed + money at usurious rates of interest, was one riding for its own fall. + </p> + <p> + None the less the Little Fellow kept on going out into the West. We did + not change our land laws for his sake, and for a time he needed no + sympathy. The homestead law in combination with the preemption act and the + tree claim act would enable a family to get hold of a very sizable tract + of land. The foundations of many comfortable fortunes were laid in + precisely this way by thrifty men who were willing to work and willing to + wait. + </p> + <p> + It was not until 1917 that the old homestead law limiting the settler to a + hundred and sixty acres of land was modified for the benefit of the + stock-raiser. The stock-raising homestead law, as it is called, permits a + man to make entry for not more than six hundred and forty acres of + unappropriated land which shall have been designated by the Secretary of + the Interior as "stock-raising land." Cultivation of the land is not + required, but the holder is required to make "permanent improvements" to + the value of a dollar and twenty-five cents an acre, and at least one-half + of these improvements must be made within three years after the date of + entry. In the old times the question of proof in "proving up" was very + leniently considered. A man would stroll down to the land office and swear + solemnly that he had lived the legal length of time on his homestead, + whereas perhaps he had never seen it or had no more than ridden across it. + Today matters perhaps will be administered somewhat more strictly; for of + all those millions of acres of open land once in the West there is almost + none left worth the holding for farm purposes. + </p> + <p> + Such dishonest practices were, however, indignantly denied by those who + fostered the irrigation and dry-farming booms which made the last phase of + exploitation of the old range. A vast amount of disaster was worked by the + failure of numberless irrigation companies, each of them offering lands + to the settlers through the medium of most alluring advertising. In almost + every case the engineers underestimated the cost of getting water on the + land. Very often the amount of water available was not sufficient to + irrigate the land which had been sold to settlers. In countless cases the + district irrigation bonds-which were offered broadcast by Eastern banks to + their small investors—were hardly worth the paper on which they were + written. One after another these wildcat irrigation schemes, purporting to + assure sudden wealth in apples, pears, celery, garden truck, cherries, + small fruits, alfalfa, pecans, eucalyptus or catalpa trees-anything you + liked—went to the wall. Sometimes whole communities became + straitened by the collapse of these overblown enterprises. The recovery + was slow, though usually the result of that recovery was a far healthier + and more stable condition of society. + </p> + <p> + This whole question of irrigation and dry farming, this or that phase of + the last scrambling, feverish settling on the last lands, was sorely + wasteful of human enterprise and human happiness. It was much like the + spawning rush of the salmon from the sea. Many perish. A few survive. + Certainly there never was more cruel injustice done than that to the + sober-minded Eastern farmers, some of them young men in search of cheaper + homes, who sold out all they had in the East and went out to the dry + country to farm under the ditch, or to take up that still more hazardous + occupation—successful sometimes, though always hard and always risky—dry + farming on the benches which cannot be reached with irrigating waters. + </p> + <p> + Strangely changed was all the face of the cattle range by these successive + and startling innovations. The smoke of many little homes rose now, + scattered over all that tremendous country from the Rockies to the edge of + the short grass country, from Texas to the Canadian line. The cattle were + not banished from the range, for each little farmer would probably have a + few cows of his own; and in some fashion the great cowmen were managing to + get in fee tracts of land sufficient for their purposes. There were land + leases of all sorts which enabled the thrifty Westerner who knew the + inside and out of local politics to pick up permanently considerable + tracts of land. Some of these ranches held together as late as 1916; + indeed, there are some such oldtime holdings still existent in the West, + although far more rare than formerly was the case. + </p> + <p> + Under all these conditions the price of land went up steadily. Land was + taken eagerly which would have been refused with contempt a decade + earlier. The parings and scraps and crumbs of the Old West now were fought + for avidly. + </p> + <p> + The need of capital became more and more important in many of the great + land operations. Even the government reclamation enterprises could not + open lands to the settler on anything like the old homestead basis. The + water right cost money—sometimes twenty-five or thirty dollars an + acre; in some of the private reclamation enterprises, fifty dollars an + acre, or even more. Very frequently when the Eastern farmer came out to + settle on such a tract and to meet the hard, new, and expensive conditions + of life in the semi-arid regions he found that he could not pay out on the + land. Perhaps he brought two or three thousand dollars with him. It + usually was the industrial mistake of the land-boomer to take from this + intending settler practically all of his capital at the start. Naturally, + when the new farmers were starved out and in one way or another had made + other plans, the country itself went to pieces. That part of it was wisest + which did not kill the goose of the golden egg. But be these things as + they may be and as they were, the whole readjustment in agricultural + values over the once measureless and valueless cow country was a + stupendous and staggering thing. + </p> + <p> + Now appeared yet another agency of change. The high dry lands of many of + the Rocky Mountain States had long been regarded covetously by an industry + even more cordially disliked by the cattleman than the industry of + farming. The sheepman began to raise his head and to plan certain things + for himself in turn. Once the herder of sheep was a meek and lowly man, + content to slink away when ordered. The writer himself in the dry + Southwest once knew a flock of six thousand sheep to be rounded up and + killed by the cattlemen of a range into which they had intruded. The + herders went with the sheep. All over the range the feud between the + sheepmen and the cowmen was bitter and implacable. The issues in those + quarrels rarely got into the courts but were fought out on the ground. The + old Wyoming dead-line of the cowmen against intruding bands of Green River + sheep made a considerable amount of history which was never recorded. + </p> + <p> + The sheepmen at length began to succeed in their plans. Themselves not + paying many taxes, not supporting the civilization of the country, not + building the schools or roads or bridges, they none the less claimed the + earth and the fullness thereof. + </p> + <p> + After the establishment of the great forest reserves, the sheepmen coveted + the range thus included. It has been the governmental policy to sell range + privileges in the forest reserves for sheep, on a per capita basis. Like + privileges have been extended to cattlemen in certain of the reserves. + Always the contact and the contest between the two industries of sheep and + cows have remained. Of course the issue even in this ancient contest is + foregone—as the cowman has had to raise his cows under fence, so + ultimately must the sheepman also buy his range in fee and raise his + product under fence. + </p> + <p> + The wandering bands of sheep belong nowhere. They ruin a country. It is a + pathetic spectacle to see parts of the Old West in which sheep steadily + have been ranged. They utterly destroy all the game; they even drive the + fish out of the streams and cut the grasses and weeds down to the surface + of the earth. The denuded soil crumbles under their countless hoofs, + becomes dust, and blows away. They leave a waste, a desert, an + abomination. + </p> + <p> + There were yet other phases of change which followed hard upon the heels + of our soldiers after they had completed their task of subjugating the + tribes of the buffalo Indians. After the homesteads had been proved up in + some of the Northwestern States, such as Montana and the Dakotas, large + bodies of land were acquired by certain capitalistic farmers. All this new + land had been proved to be exceedingly prolific of wheat, the great + new-land crop. The farmers of the Northwest had not yet learned that no + country long can thrive which depends upon a single crop. But the once + familiar figures of the bonanza farms of the Northwest—the pictures + of their long lines of reapers or self-binders, twenty, thirty, forty, or + fifty machines, one after the other, advancing through the golden grain—the + pictures of their innumerable stacks of wheat—the figures of the + vast mileage of their fencing—the yet more stupendous figures of the + outlay required to operate these farms, and the splendid totals of the + receipts from such operations—these at one time were familiar and + proudly presented features of boom advertising in the upper portions of + our black land belt, which day just at the eastern edge of the old Plains. + </p> + <p> + There was to be repeated in this country something of the history of + California. In the great valleys, such as the San Joaquin, the first + interests were pastoral, and the cowmen found a vast realm which seemed to + be theirs forever. There came to them, however, the bonanza wheat farmers, + who flourished there about 1875 and through the next decade. Their highly + specialized industry boasted that it could bake a loaf of bread out of a + wheat field between the hours of sunrise and sunset. The outlay in stock + and machinery on some of these bonanza ranches ran into enormous figures. + But here, as in all new wheat countries, the productive power of the soil + soon began to decrease. Little by little the number of bushels per acre + lessened, until the bonanza farmer found himself with not half the product + to sell which he had owned the first few years of his operations. In one + California town at one time a bonanza farmer came in and covered three + city blocks with farm machinery which he had turned over to the bank + owning the mortgages on his lands and plant. He turned in also all his + mules and horses, and retired worse than broke from an industry in which + he had once made his hundreds of thousands. Something of this same story + was to follow in the Dakotas. Presently we heard no more of the bonanza + wheat farms; and a little later they were not. The one-crop country is + never one of sound investing values; and a land boom is something of which + to beware—always and always to beware. + </p> + <p> + The prairie had passed; the range had passed; the illegal fences had + passed; and presently the cattle themselves were to pass—that is to + say, the great herds. As recently as five years ago (1912) it was my + fortune to be in the town of Belle Fourche, near the Black Hills—a + region long accustomed to vivid history, whether of Indians, mines, or + cows—at the time when the last of the great herds of the old + industry thereabouts were breaking up; and to see, coming down to the + cattle chutes to be shipped to the Eastern stockyards, the last hundreds + of the last great Belle Fourche herd, which was once numbered in + thousands. They came down out of the blue-edged horizon, threading their + way from upper benches down across the dusty valley. The dust of their + travel rose as it had twenty years earlier on the same old trail. But + these were not the same cattle. There was not a longhorn among them; there + has not been a longhorn on the range for many years. They were sleek, fat, + well-fed animals, heavy and stocky, even of type, all either whitefaces or + shorthorns. With them were some old-time cowmen, men grown gray in range + work. Alongside the herds, after the ancient fashion of trailing cattle, + rode cowboys who handled their charges with the same old skill. But even + the cowboys had changed. These were without exception men from the East + who had learned their trade here in the West. Here indeed was one of the + last acts of the great drama of the Plains. To many an observer there it + was a tragic thing. I saw many a cowman there the gravity on whose face + had nothing to do with commercial loss. It was the Old West he mourned. I + mourned with him. +</p> + <p> +Naturally the growth of the great stockyards of the + Middle West had an effect upon all the cattle-producing country of the + West, whether those cattle were bred in large or in small numbers. The + dealers of the stockyards, let us say, gradually evolved a perfect + understanding among themselves as to what cattle prices ought to be at the + Eastern end of the rails. They have always pleaded poverty and explained + the extremely small margin of profit under which they have operated. Of + course, the repeated turn-over in their business has been an enormous + thing; and their industry, since the invention of refrigerator cars and + the shipment of dressed beef in tins, has been one which has extended to + all the corners of the world. The great packers would rather talk of + "by-products" than of these things. Always they have been poor, so very + poor! + </p> + <p> + For a time the railroads east of the stockyard cities of Kansas City and + Chicago divided up _pro rata_ the dressed beef traffic. Investigation after + investigation has been made of the methods of the stockyard firms, but + thus far the law has not laid its hands successfully upon them. Naturally + of late years the extremely high price of beef has made greater profit to + the cattle raiser; but that man, receiving eight or ten cents a pound on + the hoof, is not getting rich so fast as did his predecessor, who got half + of it, because he is now obliged to feed hay and to enclose his range. + Where once a half ton of hay might have been sufficient to tide a cow over + the bad part of the winter, the Little Fellow who fences his own range of + a few hundred acres is obliged to figure on two or three tons, for he must + feed his herd on hay through the long months of the winter. + </p> + <p> + The ultimate consumer, of course, is the one who pays the freight and + stands the cost of all this. Hence we have the swift growth of American + discontent with living conditions. There is no longer land for free homes + in America. This is no longer a land of opportunity. It is no longer a + poor man's country. We have arrived all too swiftly upon the ways of the + Old World. And today, in spite of our love of peace, we are in an Old + World's war! + </p> + <p> + The insatiable demand of Americans for cheap lands assumed a certain + international phase at the period lying between 1900 and 1913 or later—the + years of the last great boom in Canadian lands. The Dominion Government, + represented by shrewd and enterprising men able to handle large + undertakings, saw with a certain satisfaction of its own the swift passing + from the market of all the cheap lands of the United States. It was proved + to the satisfaction of all that very large tracts of the Canadian plains + also would raise wheat, quite as well as had the prairies of Montana or + Dakota. The Canadian railroads, with lands to sell, began to advertise the + wheat industry in Alberta and Saskatchewan. The Canadian Government went + into the publicity business on its own part. To a certain extent European + immigration was encouraged, but the United States really was the country + most combed out for settlers for these Canadian lands. As by magic, + millions of acres in western Canada were settled. + </p> + <p> + The young American farmers of our near Northwest were especially coveted + as settlers, because they knew how to farm these upper lands far better + than any Europeans, and because each of them was able to bring a little + capital of ready money into Canada. The publicity campaign waged by + Canadians in our Western States in one season took away more than a + hundred and fifty thousand good young farmers, resolved to live under + another flag. In one year the State of Iowa lost over fifteen million + dollars of money withdrawn from bank deposits by farmers moving across the + line into Canada. + </p> + <p> + The story of these land rushes was much the same there as it had been with + us. Not all succeeded. The climatic conditions were far more severe than + any which we had endured, and if the soil for a time in some regions + seemed better than some of our poorest, at least there waited for the + one-crop man the same future which had been discovered for similar methods + within our own confines. But the great Canadian land booms, carefully + fostered and well developed, offered a curious illustration of the + tremendous pressure of all the populations of the world for land and yet + more land. + </p> + <p> + In the year 1911 the writer saw, all through the Peace River Valley and + even in the neighborhood of the Little Slave Lake, the advance-guard of + wheat farmers crowding out even beyond the Canadian frontier in the + covetous search for yet more cheap land. In 1912 I talked with a school + teacher, who herself had homestead land in the Judith Basin of Montana—once + sacred to cows—and who was calmly discussing the advisability of + going up into the Peace River country to take up yet more homestead land + under the regulations of the Dominion Government! In the year 1913 I saw + an active business done in town lots at Fort McMurray, five hundred miles + north of the last railroad of Alberta, on the ancient Athabasca waterway + of the fur trade! + </p> + <p> + Who shall state the limit of all this expansion? The farmer has ever found + more and more land on which he could make a living; he is always taking + land which his predecessor has scornfully refused. If presently there + shall come the news that the land boomer has reached the mouth of the + Mackenzie River—as long ago he reached certain portions of the Yukon + and Tanana country—if it shall be said that men are now selling town + lots under the Midnight Sun—what then? We are building a government + railroad of our own almost within shadow of Mount McKinley in Alaska. + There are steamboats on all these great sub-Arctic rivers. Perhaps, some + day, a power boat may take us easily where I have stood, somewhat wearied, + at that spot on the Little Bell tributary of the Porcupine, where a slab + on a post said, "Portage Road to Ft. McPherson"—a "road" which is + not even a trail, but which crosses the most northerly of all the passes + of the Rockies, within a hundred miles of the Arctic Ocean. + </p> + <p> + Land, land, more land! It is the cry of the ages, more imperative and + clamorous now than ever in the history of the world and only arrested for + the time by the cataclysm of the Great War. The earth is well-nigh + occupied now. Australia, New Zealand, Canada, even Africa, are + colonization grounds. What will be the story of the world at the end of + the Great War none may predict. For the time there will be more land left + in Europe; but, unbelievably soon, the Great War will have been forgotten; + and then the march of the people will be resumed toward such frontiers of + the world as yet may remain. Land, land, more land! + </p> + <p> + Always in America we have occupied the land as fast as it was feasible to + do so. We have survived incredible hardships on the mining frontier, have + lived through desperate social conditions in the cow country, have fought + many of our bravest battles in the Indian country. Always it has been the + frontier which has allured many of our boldest souls. And always, just + back of the frontier, advancing, receding, crossing it this way and that, + succeeding and failing, hoping and despairing—but steadily advancing + in the net result—has come that portion of the population which + builds homes and lives in them, and which is not content with a blanket + for a bed and the sky for a roof above. + </p> + <p> + We had a frontier once. It was our most priceless possession. It has not + been possible to eliminate from the blood of the American West, diluted + though it has been by far less worthy strains, all the iron of the old + home-bred frontiersmen. The frontier has been a lasting and ineradicable + influence for the good of the United States. It was there we showed our + fighting edge, our unconquerable resolution, our undying faith. There, for + a time at least, we were Americans. + </p> + <p> + We had our frontier. We shall do ill indeed if we forget and abandon its + strong lessons, its great hopes, its splendid human dreams. + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h2> + BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + </h2> + <p> + ANDY ADAMS, "The Log of a Cowboy," 1903. "The Outlet," 1905. Homely but + excellently informing books done by a man rarely qualified for his task by + long experience in the cattle business and on the trail. Nothing better + exists than Adams's several books for the man who wishes trustworthy + information on the early American cattle business. + </p> + <p> + GEORGE A. FORSYTH, "The Story of the Soldier," 1900. + </p> + <p> + GEORGE BIRD GRINNELL, "The Story of the Indian," 1895. + </p> + <p> + EMERSON HOUGH, "The Story of the Cowboy," 1897. + </p> + <p> + CHARLES HOWARD SHINN, "The Story of the Mine," 1901. + </p> + <p> + CY WARMAN, "The Story of the Railroad," 1898. The foregoing books of + Appleton's interesting series known as "The Story of the West" are + valuable as containing much detailed information, done by contemporaries + of wide experience. + </p> + <p> + FRANCIS PARKMAN, "The Oregon Trail," 1901, with preface by the author to + the edition of 18991. This is a reprint of the edition published in 1857 + under the title "Prairie and Rocky Mountain Life," or "The California and + Oregon Trail," and has always been held as a classic in the literature of + the West. It holds a certain amount of information regarding life on the + Plains at the middle of the last century. The original title is more + accurate than the more usual one "The Oregon Trail," as the book itself is + in no sense an exclusive study of that historic highway. + </p> + <p> + COLONEL R. B. MARCY, U. S. A., "Thirty Years of Army Life on the Border," + 1866. An admirable and very informing book done by an Army officer who was + also a sportsman and a close observer of the conditions of the life about + him. One of the standard books for any library of early Western + literature. + </p> + <p> + EMERSON HOUGH, "The Story of the Outlaw," 1907. A study of the Western + desperado, with historical narratives of famous outlaws, stories of noted + border movements, Vigilante activities, and armed conflicts on the border. + </p> + <p> + NATHANIEL PITT LANGFORD, "Vigilante Days and Ways," 1893. A storehouse of + information done in graphic anecdotal fashion of the scenes in the early + mining camps of Idaho and Montana. Valuable as the work of a contemporary + writer who took part in the scenes he describes. + </p> + <p> + JOHN C. VAN TRAMP, "Prairie and Rocky Mountain Adventures or Life in the + West," 1870. A study of the States and territorial regions of our Western + empire, embracing history, statistics, and geography, with descriptions of + the chief cities of the West. In large part a compilation of earlier + Western literature. + </p> + <p> + SAMUEL BOWLES, "Our New West," 1869. Records of travel between the + Mississippi River and the Pacific Ocean, with details regarding scenery, + agriculture, mines, business, social life, etc., including a full + description of the Pacific States and studies of the "Mormons, Indians, + and Chinese" at that time. + </p> + <p> + HIRAM MARTIN CHITTENDEN, "The American Fur Trade of the Far West," 1902. + The work of a distinguished Army officer. Done with the exact care of an + Army engineer. An extraordinary collection of facts and a general view of + the picturesque early industry of the fur trade, which did so much toward + developing the American West. See also his "History of Steamboat + Navigation on the Missouri River" (1903). + </p> + <p> + A. J. SOWELL, "Early Settlers and Indian Fighters of Southwest Texas," + 1900. A local book, but done with contemporary accuracy by a man who also + studied the Texas Rangers and who was familiar with some of the earlier + frontier characters of the Southwest. + </p> + <p> + The foregoing volumes are of course but a few among the many scores or + hundreds which will have been read avidly by every man concerned with + frontier life or with the expansion of the American people to the West. + Space lacks for a fuller list, but the foregoing readings will serve to + put upon the trail of wider information any one interested in these and + kindred themes. + </p> + <p> + Let especial stress again be laid upon the preeminent value of books done + by contemporaries, men who wrote, upon the ground, of things which they + actually saw and actually understood. It is not always, or perhaps often, + that these contemporary books achieve the place which they ought to have + and hold. + </p> + <p> + Among the many books dealing with the Indians and Indian Wars, the + following may be mentioned: J. P. DUNN, "Massacres of the Mountains, A + History of the Indian Wars of the Far West," 1886. + </p> + <p> + L. E. TEXTOR, "Official Relations between the United States and the Sioux + Indians," 1896. + </p> + <p> + G. W. MANYPENNY, "Our Indian Wards," 1880. + </p> + <p> + There is an extensive bibliography appended to Frederic L. Paxson's "The + Last American Frontier" (1910), the first book to bring together the many + aspects of the Far West. + </p> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 3033 ***</div> +</body> +</html> + |